Modern Federalism: Introduction

American Federalism

Federalism, the distribution of powers between state and national governments, is a unique American contribution to the organization of government. In 1787 when the Constitution was written the 13 states delegated some of the governing responsibility to the central government and reserved other governing power for the states. In this new system they retained less power than they had under the Articles of Confederation and more than local governments possessed in the British unitary system.  In this section we will examine the American arrangement of government, federalism, and how it has changed over two hundred years.