Definition
In a federal system, the national government and the states each hold powers of their own. The Constitution gave Congress listed powers, including the power to tax, regulate trade, coin money, raise armies and declare war, and the Tenth Amendment of 1791 reserved the other powers to the states or the people. Under the Supremacy Clause, the Constitution and federal laws outranked state laws, even state bills of rights. Unlike the Articles of Confederation, which joined the states in a league that depended on state governments, the new national government could tax and govern citizens directly.
Why it matters on the AP exam
Federalism is the main way questions compare the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution: power moved from a league of sovereign states to a national government that shared power with the states and could act on citizens directly. Anti-Federalists feared a consolidated national government that would swallow the states, while Madison argued that dividing power between two levels of government protected liberty. The Tenth Amendment left out the word "expressly" that the Articles had used, which left room for implied powers, and the fights over Hamilton's national bank, the Whiskey Rebellion and the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions all turned on where national power ended. The same question ran through the Nullification Crisis and secession, so federalism is a frequent thread in continuity-and-change questions.
Connections
- Articles of Confederation: the league of states that the federal system replaced
- Anti-Federalists: feared a consolidated national government that would swallow the states
- Bill of Rights: its Tenth Amendment reserved powers not given to the nation to the states or the people
- Whiskey Rebellion: tested whether the national government could enforce its laws on citizens directly