A Study Guide for Political Theories for Students: FEDERALISM

By Gale and Cengage

Designed with busy students in mind, this concise study guide examines major political theories and is organized into the following easily digestible sections: overview, history, theory in depth, theory in action, analysis and critical response, topics for further study, and bibliography.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Jan 27, 2015
• ISBN: 9781535831086

Book preview

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HISTORY

The term federalism can be difficult to pin down. People discuss the federal government, but also talk the national, state, and local government. Which one is federal? At one point in the history of the United States, Federalists were those who supported the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. At another time, Federalists were members of a political party that advocated strong, centralized governmental authority. Some who were Federalists in the first case were not Federalists in the second. Add Anti–Federalists and definitions become more confusing.

The Earliest Years

Federalism dates to approximately 1200–1400 A.D., when the Senecas, Onondagas, Oneidas, Mohawks, and Cayugas ended their war and formed a federal union known as the Iroquois Confederacy. The constitution uniting these North Americans was called Kaianerekowa, the Great Law of Peace. Recorded and preserved in wampum, a beaded text, this document codified laws for each nation, rules for the confederacy, and consistent rights protection for all citizens. National membership remained open, and other peoples joined the confederacy. The northeastern body became known as the Six Nations after adding the Tuscaroras in approximately 1714.

WHO CONTROLS GOVERNMENT? Elected officials, majority of power in national leaders

HOW IS GOVERNMENT PUT INTO POWER? Popular vote of the majority

WHAT ROLES DO THE PEOPLE HAVE? Vote for representatives

WHO CONTROLS PRODUCTION OF GOODS? The market

WHO CONTROLS DISTRIBUTION OF GOODS? The market

MAJOR FIGURES James Madison; Alexander Hamilton

HISTORICAL EXAMPLE United States

CHRONOLOGY

1603: Johannes Althusius, the father of modern federalism, publishes Politica: Politics Methodically Set Forth and Illustrated with Sacred and Profane Examples.

1776: British colonies in North America declare independence.

1781: Articles of Confederation are ratified as the new government of the American states.

1787: Constitutional Convention meets to discuss alterations to the Articles of Confederation. The first of The Federalist Papers appears in newspapers to support ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

1789: U.S. Constitution is enacted.

1819: U.S. Supreme Court, in McCulloch vs. Maryland, establishes that the powers of the United States were not limited to those expressly in the Constitution, thus expanding the power of the national government.

1831: In the Fort Hill Address, John C. Calhoun advocates the theory of nullification by citing Madison's language from the Virginia Resolution.

1848: Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation is adopted.

1933–1939: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt creates the New Deal.

1963–1969: President Lyndon Johnson begins the Great Society.

1991: The Treaty on European Union creates the European Union.

In the West, the concept of federalism dates to the German political theorist Johannes Althusius and his 1603 work, Politica: Politics Methodically Set Forth and Illustrated with Sacred and Profane Examples.

"Althusius'Politica was the first book to present a comprehensive theory of federal republicanism rooted in a covenantal view of human society derived from, but not dependant on, a theological system, wrote Daniel J. Elazar, a professor at Temple and Bar–Ilan universities. It presented a theory of polity–building based on the polity as a compound political association established by its citizens through their primary associations on the basis of content rather than a reified state imposed by a ruler or an elite. Elazar added, The first grand federalist design, as Althusius himself was careful to acknowledge, was that of the Bible, most particularly the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament. For him, it was also the best— the ideal policy based on the right principles."

Seventeenth–century Puritans, in the earliest known use of the word federalism, referred to the covenant between God and the American settlers as federal theology. The term was probably borrowed from Latin via French. In