Federalism Research Paper

Words: 1718
Pages: 7

Federalism has played a large role in our government since the time that the Constitution was ratified. It originally gave the majority of the power to the states. As time went on, the national government gained more and more power. It used the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution to validate its acts, and the Supreme Court made decisions that strengthened the national government creating a more unified United States. Finally, the recent course of federalism has been to give powers back to the states.
Federalism was needed in the Constitution to make sure that the national government did not gain too much power. After the revolution, many people feared a monarchy or any form of government in which the central ruling body had
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The 15th Amendment gave the right to vote to former slaves and says that the right to vote cannot be denied on account of race, color, or previous condition or servitude. Just as in the 13th and 14th, the 15th Amendment allows for enforcement of the law by Congress.

The New Deal was an effort by Franklin Roosevelt and Congress to try and decrease unemployment and raise trust in the government following the stock market crash in October 1929. In addition to these goals, the New Deal had an important impact on the state of federalism that existed in the United States at the time of the crash. Through the enforcement of many new programs and agencies, the national government gained power with the ability to enforce those new agencies and programs. Programs such as the Emergency Relief Act, even though it granted aid to the states, gave the national government the power to divide up that aid to the states that needed it most. As individual programs, the acts of the New Deal did not do much for the power of the national government. But, as the number of federally mandated programs increased, so did the power of the national government.

Competitive Federalism came just after the time of, and decentralized Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. The Great Society expanded the size and capacities of the national government' domestic agencies. During The period of Competitive Federalism laws such as the Highway Bill, the