GOVT 2301 45823
Distance Ed.
What is federalism? It is a political system that divides powers between the national and state governments. All throughout our history in the US federalism has played its part in the constitution and the government; however it has changed over time. I will discuss further in my paper the different types of federalism and their current relationship with the national government and the state government. Is federalism working in the United States?
There were two philosophers Montesquieu and David Hume. Montesquieu was a French philosopher who was very vital to our American Constitution. He shielded the separations of powers, because he believed that authority should be used to balance power in the nation against dictatorship. He was a writer as well as being a well known philosopher who wrote “The Spirit of the Laws”. He also talked about three different branches of government in which the people involved would have to develop different ways of governing our society. Another major theory of Montesquieu was the Checks and Balances system. (Krause, Spring 2000) David Hume was also a great philosopher (Morris, Winter 2007) who was also very vital to our constitution. Hume thought that an opinion had two sides to it which was interests and rights. He then split rights into two parts which was property and power. Hume did not want change anything in our previous government he just wanted to update it and foil any new drastic forms of government. (Morris, Winter 2007)
There were many different reasons that federalism was brought into the constitution. One reason was to put a limit on the power that the state and government had doing this would ensure that neither of the two abused the powers that was given to them. The reason for federalism to come about was so that both of the governments would not become so competitive with each other therefore they imposed a limitation on both governments power....