hi
i'm craig and this is crash course
government and politics and today we're
going to talk about a fundamental
concept in american government
federalism i'm sorry
i'm not sorry you're not even endangered
anymore federalism is a little confusing
because it includes the word federal as
in federal government
which is what we use to describe the
government of the united states as a
whole which is kind of the opposite of
what we mean when we say federalism
confused google it this video will
probably come up and then just watch
this video or just continue watching
this video
so what is federalism most simply it's
the idea that in the us
governmental power is divided between
the government of the united states and
the government of the individual states
the government of the us the national
government is sometimes called the
federal government while the state
governments are just called the state
governments
this is because technically the u.s can
be considered a federation of states but
this means different things to different
people
for instance federation of states means
ham sandwich to me i'll have one
federation of states please side of
tater tots
thank you i'm kind of dumb in a federal
system the national government takes
care of some things like for example
war with other countries and delivering
the mail while the state government
takes care of other things like driver's
license hunter's license
barber's license dentist license license
to kill that's james bond
and that's in england and that i hope
states don't do that pretty simple right
maybe not for one thing there are some
aspects of government that are handled
by both the state and the national
government taxes americans favorite
government activity are an example there
are federal taxes and state taxes but it
gets even more complicated because there
are different types of federalism
depending on what period in american
history you're talking about
ah stan why is history so confusing
ah stan you can tell me
can you talk stan basically though there
are two main types of federalism
dual federalism which has nothing to do
with aaron burr usually refers to the
period of american history that
stretches from the founding of our great
nation until the new deal
and cooperative federalism which has
been the rule since the 1930s
let's start with an easy one and look at
dual federalism in the thought bubble
from 1788 until 1937 the u.s basically
lived under a regime of dual federalism
which meant government power was
strictly divided between the state and
national governments
notice i didn't say separated because i
don't want you to confuse federalism
with separation of powers
don't do it with dual federalism there
are some things that only the federal
government does and some things that
only the state governments do this is
sometimes called jurisdiction the
national government had jurisdiction
over internal improvements like
interstate roads and canals subsidies to
the states
and tariffs which are taxes on imports
and thus fall under the general heading
of foreign policy the national
government also owns public lands
and regulates patents which need to be
national for them to offer protection
for inventors in all the states and
because you want a silver dollar in
delaware to be worth the same as a
silver dollar in georgia the national
government also controls currency the
state government had control over
property laws
inherence laws commercial laws banking
laws corporate laws
insurance family law which means
marriage and divorce morality stuff like
public lewdness and drinking keeps me in
check
public health education criminal laws
including determining what is a crime
and how crimes are prosecuted land use
which
includes water and mineral rights
elections local government and licensing
of professions and occupations
basically what's required to drive a car
or open a bar or become a barber or
become james bond so under dual
federalism the state government has
jurisdiction over a lot more than the
national government these powers over
health safety and morality are sometimes
called police power and usually belong
to the states because of the strict
division between the two types of
government
dual federalism is sometimes called
layer cake federalism
delicious and it's consistent with the
tradition of limited government that
many americans hold very dear thanks
thought bubble now some of you might be
wondering craig where does the national
government get the power to do anything
that has to do with states yeah well off
the top of my head the u.s constitution
in article 1 section 8 clause 3 gives
congress the power
to regularly commerce with foreign
nations and among the several states and
with the indian tribes this is what's
known as the commerce clause and the way
that it's been interpreted forms the
basis of dual federalism and cooperative
federalism for most of the 19th century
the supreme court decided that almost
any attempt by any government federal or
state to regulate state economic
activity would violate the commerce
clause this basically meant that there
was very little regulation of business
at all
freedom and this is how things stood
with the u.s following a system of dual
federalism with very little government
regulation and the national government
not doing much
other than going to war buying or
conquering enormous amounts of territory
and delivering the mail then the great
depression happened and franklin
roosevelt and congress enacted the new
deal which changed the role of the
federal government in a big way the new
deal brought us cooperative federalism
where the national government encourages
states and localities to pursue
nationally defined goals the main way
that the federal government does this is
through
a dollar bills y'all money is what i'm
saying stan
can i make it rain yeah all right i'm
doing it i
happen to have cash in my hand right now
oh yeah take my federal money states
regulate me i'm a regulator this money
that the federal government gives to the
state is called a grant in aid grants
and aid can work like a carrot
encouraging a state to adopt a certain
policy
or work like a stick when the federal
government withholds funds if a state
doesn't do what the national government
wants grants and aid are usually called
categorical because they're given to
states for a particular purpose like
transportation or education or
alleviating poverty
there are two types of categorical
grants in aid formula grants and project
grants
under a formula grant a state gets aid
in a certain amount of money based on a
mathematical formula the best example of
this is the old way welfare was given in
the u.s under the program called aid to
families with dependent children
afdc state's got a certain amount of
money for every person who was
classified as poor the more poor people
estate had the more money it got
project grants require states to submit
proposals in order to receive aid the
states compete for a limited pool of
resources nowadays project grants are
more common than formula grants but
neither is as popular as block grants
which the government gives out lego
blocks and then you build stuff with the
legos
it's a good time no no where the
national government gives the state a
huge chunk of money for something big
like
infrastructure which is made with
concrete and steel not legos
and the state is allowed to figure out
how to spend the money the basic type of
cooperative federalism is the carrot
stick type which is sometimes called
marble cake federalism because it mixes
up the state and federal governments in
ways that makes it impossible to
separate the two
federalism it's such a culinary delight
the key to this is you guessed it dalai
dallah bills y'all money but there's
another aspect of cooperative federalism
that's really not so cooperative and
that's
regulated federalism under regulated
federalism the national government sets
up
regulations and rules that the states
must follow some examples of these rules
also called mandates
are epa regulations civil rights
standards and the rules set up by the
americans with disabilities act
sometimes the government gives the
states money to implement the rules but
sometimes it doesn't
and they must comply anyway that's
called an unfunded mandate
or as i like to call it an unfun mandate
because
no money no fun a good example of this
is osha regulations that employers have
to follow
states don't like these and congress
tried to do something about them with
the unfunded mandates reform act or
umrah but it hasn't really worked in the
early 21st century americans are
basically living under a system of
cooperative federalism with some areas
of activity that are heavily regulated
this is a stretch from the original idea
that federalism will keep the national
government small
and have most government functions
belong to the states if you follow
american politics and i know you
do this small government ideal should
sound familiar because it's the bedrock
principle of many conservatives and
libertarians in the u.s
as conservatives made major political
inroads after the 1970s a new concept of
federalism which was actually kind of an
old concept of federalism became popular
it was called surprise new federalism
and it was popularized by presidents
nixon and reagan just to be clear it's
called new federalism not surprise new
federalism new federalism basically
means giving more power to the states
and this has been done in three ways
first block grants allow states
discretion to decide what to do with
federal money and what's a better way to
express your power than spending money
or not spending money as the case may be
another form of new federalism is
devolution which is the process of
giving state and local governments the
power to enforce regulations
devolving power from the national to the
state level finally some courts have
picked up the cause of new federalism
through cases based on the 10th
amendment which states the powers not
delegated to the united states by the
constitution
nor prohibited by it to the states are
reserved to the states respectively or
to the people the idea that some powers
like those police powers i talked about
before are reserved by the states
has been used to put something of a
break on the commerce clause so as you
can see where we are with federalism
today is kind of complicated presidents
reagan george h.w bush and clinton
seemed to favor new federalism and block
grants but george w bush seemed to push
back towards regulated federalism with
laws like no child left behind in the
creation of the department of homeland
security it's pretty safe to say that
we're going to continue to live under a
regime of cooperative federalism with a
healthy dose of regulation thrown in but
many americans feel that the national
government is too big and expensive and
not what the framers wanted if history's
any guide a system of dual federalism
with most of the government in the hands
of the states is probably not gonna
happen for some reason it's really
difficult to convince institutions to
give up powers once they've got them
i'm never giving up this power thanks
for watching i'll see you next week
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