What Is Federalism?

Mini Fact: Federal and state governments may work together, especially during crises such as the coronavirus pandemic.

As we have been learning in this series, the men who wrote our Constitution were very concerned about power. They knew that our country’s first laws, the Articles of Confederation, did not give the national government enough power. (The Articles of Confederation were the laws that united the states together after the Revolution.) The articles had given too much power to the states.

In many ways, each state acted like a separate country. Strong national laws that were fair to everyone were needed to bind the country together.

The writers of the

Constitution set up what is called a federal system of government. It divides powers between the national government and the state governments.

As an American, you are a citizen of both the United States and the state in which you live.

Reserved powers

Under our federal type of government, the states are free to keep certain powers. Some limits were put on the U. S. government in the Bill of Rights of 1791.

The 10th Amendment makes it very clear that the powers not given to the national government are reserved, or saved, for the states.

For example, states have the power to set up a system to educate their people. But states are denied the right to print their own money and to make treaties with other governments.

Both the U.S. and state governments are given the power to:

• collect taxes.

• borrow money.

• take private property for public use after paying a fair price. In 2005, Betty Debnam, creator of The Mini Page, worked closely with the National Archives in Washington, D.C., to create a nine-part series of issues about our U.S. Constitution. This is the sixth issue in the series, which will continue once a month until Election Day 2020.