Federalism is a system that is embedded into the politics of the USA; federalism involves the sharing of powers between the different levels of government: the State governments and the 15/10/ · What is Federalism? Introduction Federalism may be defined as the method of governing whereby two or more entities rule a nation. This means that federal government Federalism is a political movement that advances the governing concept of shared rule and self-rule through the development and operation of governmental arrangements called
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This example Federalism Essay is published for educational and informational purposes only. If you need a custom essay or research paper on this topic please use our writing services. com offers reliable custom essay writing services that can help you to receive high grades and impress your professors with the quality of each essay or research paper you hand in. Most federal countries comprise some combination of territorial, ethnic, economic, and social diversity as the basis of their constituent units. Although only about twenty-five or so existing nation-states encompass full constitutional divided rule federations, they tend to include many countries that are large in both area and population, federalism essay, for example, Argentina, federalism essay, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Nigeria, India, and the United States.
Such smaller nations as Austria, Belgium, Malaysia, and Switzerland are federations as well. Also, many countries either experience high degrees of federal arrangements—Bosnia, Italy, Spain, federalism essay, South Africa, Ethiopia—or devolve substantial subnational autonomy in all or in parts—United Kingdom, Denmark-Greenland, France-Corsica,Tanzania—to be included in Federalizing nations. In addition, supranational movements such as the European Union EU are federal-like or at least confederal in nature. The EU country interests are struggling with a constitution that vacillates between maintaining state powers and upholding the more Federalist view of forming a strong European government.
It is not easy to conceptualize Federalism, because of the variety of interpretations that have been ascribed to it in the three centuries or so of its modern existence. How can Federalism and federation be defined both in practice and as objects of study? Daniel Elazar defines Federalism simply as self-rule plus shared rule, operating contractually on a noncentralized basis through a matrix of governments, federalism essay, with fluid power loadings. Since their inception in the late eighteenth century, Federalism and federation have become important areas of study within political science, federalism essay.
Unity in federal countries is represented by a single federal federalism essay general national government, whereas diversity is manifested through constituent unit governments: states, provinces, and regions. The general government holds together the constituent units and acts, for all the people, on behalf of the entire country. Diversity is enhanced by the power that is shared in constituent governments through its own set of federalism essay. Depending on the country, respective ethnic, economic, geographic, and social differences, in combination, normally demarcate these units.
Belgium is federated by linguistic-ethnic differences between the Flemish and Walloons. In each case, federal arrangements have developed to allow for representation and promotion of these differences within the framework of a single country. For some time, divided rule was considered to be a product of some bargain among sovereign entities that agree to yield sovereignty to increase their public security, sometimes economic interests, or both. William Riker notes that the product of the bargain is a division of final decisions between two levels. He cites as examples India in the late s, Spain in the late s, and Belgium from the s to the s, where strong unitary features were set aside in favor of constitutionally devolved power and their polities were transformed into federal countries.
As numerous theologians and political philosophers have noted, the federal idea has biblical roots. Theologically speaking, federalism essay, the partnership between people and God as described in the Bible was covenantal in idea, which in turn was transformed to the covenantal or federal relationship between individuals and families leading to the formation of political bodies as compound polities. The ancient Greeks used federal arrangements after the Peloponnesian War federalism essay BCE for military purposes, as small city-states combined in limited union or confederation to ward off larger powers, federalism essay.
The constituent cities delegated to federal rulers only military authority, retaining diplomatic, treaty, and related powers. Similarly, in northern Italy and southern Germany, medieval cities formed military confederations to resist the power of larger nation-states. Both of these federative movements suffered from increasing restrictions on the authority of military leaders by their constituent governments, which led to ineffective defensive performance and eventual dissolution. Moreover, in general, confederations were unable to mobilize sufficient political support or government power to maintain themselves in an age of exclusive nationalism.
They proved unable to raise revenues, federalism essay, promote their economies, or even defend themselves. That indeed is a primary force behind the American transformation from a confederation into the first modern federation. The Federalism essay of Confederation were written in but were not adopted until March as the War of Independence from Britain — was ending. The roots of the struggle between the forces of strong national government and independent states go deep into colonial history and experience, as do quasi-independence and partial self-governance under the British Crown. The story of the first federation that followed the U, federalism essay.
Constitutional Convention of is well known. After much debate and compromise, a single countrywide union was formed that would act directly on the population, through representative assemblies rather than through the states. The national government federalism essay to be insulated from the direct political control of the federalism essay, but its own influences would be checked by division of institutional federalism essay between the legislative bodies, the executive, and a judiciary. The new national government was to be a limited government of enumerated powers but with all of the necessary means to secure the safety, liberty, and prosperity of federalism essay larger community.
The nineteenth century saw the establishment of a number of federations or at least constitutionally federal regimes, influenced to some degree by the United States, federalism essay. The first was Switzerland infollowed by Canada inthe German Empire and Reich from toand Australia in the early twentieth century. Neither the ancient Federalism essay philosophers e, federalism essay. The earliest writings surrounded the Swiss and Dutch confederations, which led to the first full-blown conceptual framework. Johannes Althusius — made the connection of union or consociatio, the first federal theory of popular sovereignty.
The work of James Madison at the American Constitutional Convention and in the Federalist Papers, which supported ratification of the proposed Constitution, did the most to forge modern federal theory. Madison argued for a large republic in which both local and collective interests were to be represented, where power given by the people would be divided between two governments Federalist No. Alexander Hamilton, like Madison, thought the supremacy clause granting the general government ultimate power when there were disputes among the levels is where the emphasis of Federalism lies. He clearly considers territorial power and institutional power division less important than does Madison. Federalism essay advantage of a modern federation is that it can act directly on individuals, and through its greater powers the federal government prevents states from federalism essay into a state of anarchy, civil war, or dissolution.
Hamilton makes it clear that there is only one national government, one federal republic, one federal state. Federal theory in the United States and elsewhere has naturally been expanded through the number of applications to different countries and, of course, as these countries evolve and deal with new situations. Robert Agranoff and Michael McGuire note that the application of U. Federalism has changed and theoretically has been characterized as dual, cooperative, coercive, and more recently open to a number of models of overlapping and opportunistic behavior. American theory in general has been centralizing or national in focus. In a similar vein, federal experiences on a cross-national basis have been ideologically identified as leaning toward pluralist in a multiple institutional sense, centralist in formation of a union, decentralist in the sense of reinforcing multiple power centers, and balanced between integration and diversification.
Federal theory has also been closely attached to particular value or normative positions. Alain Gagnon and Charles Gibbs indicate the three most central as 1 communitarian, both social and political; 2 functional, federalism essay, in the sense of operating manageable political systems; and 3 democratic, enhancing the liberty of persons plus participation of citizens and the promotion of equality. Promotion of these principles has evolved as being part of the federal ideology. For example, as democratic ideals and universal suffrage systems emerged, federal systems evolved along with federalism essay rise of democracy through political parties and other forms of mass political participation.
Because federal countries share rule, their constitutions must identify the broad foci of powers since two levels govern the same territory and people and each has the authority to make some decisions independent of the other. Watts identifies the following essential features of federal constitutionalism: 1 delineation and distribution of powers and institutional structures, 2 broad design of constituent units, 3 allocation of legislative and executive powers, 4 essential federal or general government powers, 5 the role of constituent unit representatives in decision making, 6 special provision for proportionate representation, 7 role of courts and judicial review, federalism essay, 8 constitutional amendment processes, 9 protection of individual and collective rights, and 10 the status of the constitution as supreme law.
Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Mexico, Spain, and the United States are among those with subnational constitutions. Institutions within federal countries make a difference because they structure patterns of federalism essay within societies. One important institutional feature of federal countries is the distribution of powers between levels. In Enric Argullol Murgadas and associates examined the allocation of competencies by level in some twelve federal countries. In all systems some powers are exclusive by level, federalism essay, and some are concurrent, with residual powers varying by particular federal system. Almost all federal countries employ legislative second chambers or senates that federalism essay varying degrees are representative of area or constituent units.
Some are appointed, and some are popularly elected by the constituent units. Their powers vary considerably from country to country. In the United States, Australia, and Brazil senate and lower-house powers are equal, whereas in Canada and Spain second chambers are considerably weaker. Germany has a unique situation wherein the upper house Bundestag not only has equal powers to the Bundesrat, its parliament, but includes direct representatives from the Länder state governments, most of whom are Länder cabinet administrators.
Legislative bodies are normally organized by the major political parties that are in the majority and minority of each chamber, federalism essay, similar to that of nonfederal parliaments, federalism essay. The parties in federal systems, however, are almost always organized on a federal basis. The same pattern holds for Canada, Australia, the United States, federalism essay, and many other countries. All federal countries distribute revenue powers among the levels of federalism essay, although the general governments tend to raise the largest sums of money. Vertical and horizontal among subnational units imbalances are then adjusted through such mechanisms as tax sharing and subventions. Older federations, for example, federalism essay, the United States, Canada, and Australia, use the federal general spending power for broad purposes, even those that effect exclusive powers federalism essay other federalism essay. These actions have federalism essay been upheld by their courts.
The divided power nature of federal systems means that some form of court must adjudicate jurisdictional disputes and resolve conflicts. All federations nevertheless provide for judicial remedies for disputes relating to federal questions, that is, matters of power and responsibility by level. Some countries use their general federal court systems to adjudicate such constitutional issues as well as other matters relating to general government. This is the case for Austria, Australia, Canada, federalism essay, the United States, Malaysia, and India. Other countries—Germany, Spain, federalism essay, and Belgium—employ dedicated constitutional courts, which specialize in matters of rights and constitutional federalism essay, particularly matters relating to issues and conflicts between the tiers of government.
Fiscal and program interdependencies among governments mean that federalism essay within federal countries must interact regularly. These actions are called intergovernmental relations IGR. The concept not the practice originated in the United States during the Great Depression ofwhen new activities and programs drastically altered the concept of separation of functions by level of government. It has come to characterize the patterns of interaction among levels in many countries, particularly in federal systems. Deil Wright sets out five distinct features that define and guide IGR studies: 1 number and types of governmental units, their legal status, and changes over time; 2 number and types of public officials by jurisdiction and unit; their background, federalism essay, attitudes, and perceptions of their roles and responsibilities; and their actions; 3 patterns of interaction among and between officials representing various jurisdictions and governmental units; 4 range of involvement by all public officials elected and appointed, national and local, executive, legislative, and judicial, particularly when involved in policies that affect multiple units; and 5 federalism essay and programs implemented through intergovernmental arrangements, with emphasis on administrative rules in programming, fiscal flows, and services delivery.
In many ways the process study of IGR as a means of understanding federal countries stands in contrast to and considerably enhances more legalistic and institutional analyses. IGR unfolds in federal systems through a number of administrative, political, economic, and legal mechanisms or practices that operate across jurisdictional boundaries. Among the more important economic mechanisms are the various forms of subventions or grants, tax efforts e. Among the more important and widespread legal mechanisms are regulations imposed by higher-level governments on subnational governments, cooperation and intergovernmental agreements among governments, and reciprocal or interdependent legal actions e, federalism essay.
Finally, the most notable administrative instruments include contracts for services, program assessments or audits, negotiation for performance or results in exchange for controls, and various forms of place-based or regional management at the horizontal level. While the extensiveness of these practices obviously varies from country to country, federalism essay, they have proved to be the major lenses through which federalism essay examine the various IGR dimensions. It is thus not only economic and political forces that ultimately make the outward forms of Federalism e. Social and cultural issues are also forces of maintenance and growth. Federal systems do not grow by accident but as a result of multiple forces, federalism essay.
The Federalism idea involves both structure and processes of governance that seek to establish unity on the basis of consent while preserving diversity by constitutionally uniting separate political communities into an encompassing polity. Powers are divided and shared between constituent governments and a federal government, where the constituent governments have broad responsibilities and the autonomy to carry out responsibilities and the federal government undertakes broader countrywide responsibilities, federalism essay. A democratic federation is, in effect, federalism essay, a republic federalism essay republics, which emphasizes partnership and cooperation for the common good while also allowing diversity and competition.
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An Essay on Fiscal Federalism Words: Pages: 3 According to the article Principles for State-Federal Relations “preamble”, Federalism is ultimately the system of governments. It is 6/09/ · Federalism Essay Topics: Simple & Easy An Overview of the Change of Federalism and the Great Depression The Implications of Elections for Federalism in Iraq: Toward a Five Federalism is a system that is embedded into the politics of the USA; federalism involves the sharing of powers between the different levels of government: the State governments and the
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