Federalism in the United States

Federalism in the United States is the evolution of the relationship between U.S. state governments and the federal government of the United States. Since the founding of the country, power has shifted away from the states and towards the national government.

Federalism in the 1780s

The first Federalist movement was distinguished by a belief that the national government under the Articles of Confederation was too weak, and that a stronger federal government was needed. The underlying objectives of the Federalists were to extend protectionist barriers, guarantee the recovery of debts, and collect taxes. Also, they believed in sustaining a military capable of enforcing internal colonization and slavery, as well as suppressing protest within a society of "different and unequal distribution of property."

The movement was greatly strengthened by the reaction to Shays' Rebellion of 1786–1787, which was an armed uprising of yeoman farmers in western Massachusetts. The rebellion was fueled by a poor economy that was created, in part, by the inability of the federal government to deal effectively with the debt from the American Revolution. Moreover, the federal government had proven incapable of raising an army to quell the rebellion, so that Massachusetts had been forced to raise an army of mercenaries.

In 1787, with Shays' Rebellion highlighting several deficiencies in the government under the Articles of Confederation, the Federalist push for a convention to propose amendments to the Articles was successful. This convention almost immediately dropped its original mandate and instead set about constructing a new Constitution of the United States. Once the convention concluded and released the Constitution for public consumption, the Federalist movement became focused on getting the Constitution ratified.

The most forceful defense of the new Constitution was The Federalist, a compilation of 85 essays written in New York City to convince the people of the State of New York to vote for ratification. These articles, written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, examined the defects of the Articles of Confederation and the benefits of the new, proposed Constitution, and analyzed the political theory and function behind the various articles of the Constitution. The Federalist remains one of the most important documents in American political science.

Those opposed to the new Constitution became known as the "Anti-Federalists". They generally were local rather than cosmopolitan in perspective, oriented to farming rather than commerce, and were happy enough with the status quo. However, the Anti-Federalists also included luminaries such as George Mason. The Anti-Federalists had doubts about the new proposal, especially about the absence of a Bill of Rights and the potential for an elected monarchy.

Because George Washington lent his prestige to the Constitution and because of the ingenuity and organizational skills of its proponents, the Constitution was ratified by enough states to become operative on June 21, 1788. The outgoing government under the Articles of Confederation scheduled elections for the new government, and set March 4, 1789 as the date that the new government would take power. However, the Anti-Federalists cause was not totally fought in vain. During the ratification debates, they had secured a promise that the new government would submit a set of amendments to the states, incorporating a Bill of Rights into the Constitution. This promise, known as the "Massachusetts compromise", was made good on September 25, 1789, when Congress submitted twelve articles of amendment to the states. Ten of these articles achieved passage on December 15, 1791 and are what we now know as the Bill of Rights.

With the passage of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the first Federalist movement and the Anti-Federalist movement were exhausted, so they dispersed. A new movement took on the name of "Federalism", and, like its predecessor, it generated an opposition movement, this time called "Republicanism".

Federalist Party

Main article: Federalist Party (United States)

As soon as the first Federalist movement dissipated, a second one sprang up to take its place. This movement was based on the policies of Alexander Hamilton and his allies for a stronger national government, a loose construction of the Constitution, and a mercantile (rather than agricultural) economy. As time progressed, the factions which adhered to these policies organized themselves into the nation's first political party, the Federalist Party, and the movement's focus and fortunes began to track those of the party it spawned. The movement reached its zenith with the election of an overtly Federalist President, John Adams; however, with the defeat of Adams in the election of 1800 and the death of Hamilton in a duel with Aaron Burr, the Federalist Party began a long decline from which it never recovered.

While the Federalist movement of the 1780s and the Federalist Party were distinct entities, they were related in more than just a common name. The Republican Party, the opposition to the Federalist Party, emphasized the fear that a strong national government was a threat to the liberties of the people. They stressed that the national debt created by the new government would bankrupt the country, and that federal bondholders were paid from taxes paid by honest farmers and workingmen. These themes resonated with the Anti-Federalists, the opposition to the Federalist movement of the 1780s. As Norman Risjord has documented for Virginia, of the supporters of the Constitution in 1788, 69% joined the Federalist party, while nearly all (94%) of the opponents joined the Republicans. 71% of Jefferson's supporters in Virginia were former anti-federalists who continued to fear centralized government, while only 29% had been proponents of the Constitution a few years before. In short, nearly all of the opponents of the Federalist movement became opponents of the Federalist Party.

Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison were the most vocal supporters of Federalism.

Between ratification and the New Deal

Once the U.S. Constitution was ratified, the division of labor between federal, state, and local governments was relatively unchanged for over a century. Political scientist Theodore J. Lowi summarized the system in place during those years in The End of the Republican Era

National government domestic policies

• Internal improvements
• Subsidies (mainly to shipping)
• Tariffs
• Disposal of public lands
• Patents
• Currency

State government policies

• Property law
• Estate and inheritance law
• Commerce laws of ownership and exchange
• Banking and credit laws
• Labor and union laws
• Insurance laws
• Family laws
• Morals laws
• Public health and quarantine laws
• Public works laws, including eminent domain
• Building codes
• Land use laws
• Water and mineral resource laws
• Judiciary and criminal procedure laws
• Electoral laws, including parties
• Local government laws
• Civil service laws
• Occupations and professions laws

Local government policies

• Variances (adaptation of state law to local conditions)
• Public works
• Contracts for public works
• Licensing of public accommodations
• Assessable improvements
• Basic public services

Lowi notes that this division of labor was changed dramatically with the advent of the New Deal, and three Supreme Court cases that validated the shift in power:

• National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation,
• Helvering v. Davis, and
• Steward Machine Company v. Davis.

21st century federalism

Another movement calling itself "Federalism" appeared in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Often associated with the Conservative movement, its adherents argue that the national government has usurped power from the states, and that the power should be devolved back to the states, in a process called devolution. This philosophy is sometimes called "states' rights", although its proponents usually eschew the latter term because of its associations with Jim Crow and segregation. Unlike the states' rights movement of the mid-20th century which focused on civil rights, the modern federalist movement is concerned far more with expansive interpretations of the Commerce Clause, as in the areas of medical marijuana (Gonzales v. Raich), partial birth abortion, gun possession (United States v. Lopez), federal police powers (United States v. Morrison, which struck down portions of the Violence Against Women Act), or agriculture (Wickard v. Filburn).

See also

Category:United States federalism case law

Anti-Federalists