Federalism: the Relationship Between States and National Government

The United States, as its name suggests, is a federal republic of separate states. The federal system of government, which grants some powers to the federal government and reserves other powers to the states, is very complicated and sensitive balance of power between Washington and the fifty state capitals. Relatively few nations have a federal system of government. In many other nations, such as France, provincial governments are not independent entities, but are divisions of the national government.

When the Framers met to write the Constitution in 1787, the most difficult problem they faced was how to balance the interests of states with large and small populations, as well as the powers of the federal government and the states, so that residents of all thirteen states would be willing to ratify the Constitution. The federal system created under the U.S. Constitution struck a complex balance between the powers of the federal government and the states. The Constitution created a much more powerful federal government than the United States had known under the Articles of Confederation, which had been the basis for American government from the outbreak of the American Revolution until the adoption of the Constitution.