hi my name's olle and in this politics explain video I'm going to go through everything you need to know about federalism and debates about the US Constitution in a level politics I'm going to start by looking at the parts of the specification this video covers before going into some of the key questions you could get asked with 12 markers and essay questions on this topic in the exam I'm then going to give an introduction to federalism into the in the United States including um what federal Federalism is how power's divided between the states and federal government and its relationship Del limited government I'm then going to look at the development of federalism over time looking at the key stages of federalism um as well as federalism under recent presidents and then going to look at federalism in practice um with a number of key key case studies uh before looking at the debate about the extent to which the USA remains Federal today and then going to move away from federalism a little bit just to wrap up the Constitution and federalism topic um this is the third of three videos we going to look at how democratic um the US Constitution is and its overall strengths and weaknesses before looking at how the Constitution shapes US policies today so starting off with the parts of specification this lesson covers um so this covers federalism limited government um and main characteristics of us federalism as well as a kind of key interpretation debates around the US Constitution and federalism so the extent to which is still Federal um today as well as some overall debates about the US Constitution in terms of questions uh you can get ask all of these 12 markers and past essay questions um are for the whole of the Constitution and federalism topic um and this um this video is effec going to be useful for all of them they're looking at the overall similarities between the Constitutions um the sources the principles um differences between Devolution and federalism um as well as a lot of these essay questions so ones including the overall um strengths and weaknesses um the extent to which the US Constitution is effective at achieving the principle set out by the founding fathers Federalism is one of those principles um also got the extent to which the US Constitution is democratic um and and one specifically on federalism and how effective federalism um is maintained today and how effectively State uh Power is protected um today by the Constitution so starting off we're going to have a look at an introduction to federalism so firstly what is federalism Federalism is a structure of politics and government which power is divided between a national government and state governments both of which significant TR control over clearly defined areas of government so when we talk about federal government in the US that means the central government so it's between the federal central government um and the states the power of states is protected from federal government encroachment um by the Constitution and amendment process and importantly all states have the same level um of decision- making power as each other the fing fathers intended federalism to be a middle ground between a strong central government and protecting the rights and sovereignty of states and therefore the rights and sovereignty of the people as historic federalism isn't explicitly mentioned in the Constitution um the word federalism at least however it's implied um through how the Constitution sets out uh the powers of the federal government and their limits the articles of the Constitution explicitly set out the enumerated powers of the different brades of federal government as well as the concurrent powers that both the states and federal government had have including the power to tax um and then the 10th Amendment clearly seeks to protect the power of the states by reserving all Powers not given to the federal uh government to the States the Supreme Court as The Interpreter and enforcer of the Constitution also clearly takes on the role of arbitrating between the states and federal government when disputes arise in terms of how power is divided between the states in government um in terms of different powers uh so we've looked in the previous video at the key Federal Government powers which are of course all split between Congress um the presidency and the Judiciary in terms of shared Powers you got maintaining Law and Order leing taxes borrowing money chartering regulating Banks establishing courts and providing for the public welfare and Key State powers include establishing and maintaining schools establishing local governments regulating business within the state making marriage laws providing for Public Safety conducting elections and all other powers not delegated to the National governments that's through the 10th amendment limited um government E is linked to federalism so this is another principle of the U US Constitution this is the idea that the government will only do do what's essential so it's a really key classical liberal idea U which really influenced um the founding fathers when they uh were drafting the US Constitution the key goal of limited government is to respect the rights and freedoms of individuals and leave them largely alone so quick have a look at now is the development of federalism in the United States and its development over time so the first thing to know is that federalism since static is developed and evolved as America has especially um in the latter part of the 19th century the first two-thirds of the 20th century a range of factors led to the remit and power of the federal government increasing um and expanding and in many cases um expanding into areas that were controlled um by States um and there are a number of reasons for this Federal expansion so the Great Depression huge economic downturn um that affected all of the states from 1929 in particular with mass unemployment as you can see here only the federal government in reality led by FDR's New Deal had the resources to the economic talent for example through great public work so you saw the federal government's role in local business and local economies expanding because of um the real need to tackle such massive um economic downturn um and its consequences in terms of unemployment foreign policy was also really important so starting with World War II us played a much more interventionist role in global Affairs it's never really stopped um in the second half of the 20th century becoming a global superpower and the increased importance of foreign policy and participation the US military um in Wars inevitably led to the federal government becoming more high-profile and powerful and just having to have a lot more funding as well become a lot larger Supreme Court judgments um also played an important role so through the majority of the 20th century the Supreme Court took a very liberal and expansive approach to the implied powers in the constitution in particular in particular the nessary and proper clause or also known as the elastic clause and the Commerce Clause this allowed the federal government to increase its power and reach in the areas that had previously been controlled by the states in particular by a lot of things being decided defined as interstate commerce number of constitutional amendments were also really important um for example the 14th Amendment um which transformed the federal state relationship um as they were used by the Supreme Court to strike down state laws on segregation and other racial discrimination they've also been used to strike down um countless state laws including those restricting abortion this is prior to the overturn of Ry Wade the 16th Amendment also increased the power of federal government in relation to the states by allowing the federal government to impose an income tax on individuals within States population growth was also important as the population um grew it required in EN large central government to manage it as more states were brought into the US um also industrialization um a lot more kind of joined up um integrated economy um and improvements in communication from Railways to the internet um meant that kind of the economy and and life of individuals or effectively a lot more Interlink across state boundaries um and ultimately because there's increased Interstate communication and commerce it required the federal government to manage it in terms of um there's a number of key kind of phases in the development of federalism um each with different names it can be really useful um to bring into your essays and understand so from 1787 to 1920s there's what's been called as dual federalism um and this is effectively federalism as originally intended by the father so there's a very clear divide between the areas the state had jurisdiction over and the areas the federal government controlled and each area of policy was gladly controlled by either the federal government um or the states with little complication or cooperation and States exercised the most political power and there's little regulation of the economy by the federal government well you had then starting with the Great Depression um and FDR's New Deal was the cooperative federalism U from the the 1930s to the 1960s and this is when the federal government significantly increased and expanded its reach um with a wide range of national programs and regulations in order to bring America out of the economic slump it found itself in so federal government in this uh period became a lot more involved in policy areas traditionally controlled by the states um as they work together in a range of areas so lynon B Johnson's Great Society program actually then continued this in the mid 1960s um increasing federal spending hugely for a program of economic reforms and Welfare schemes to tackle poverty poor Medical Care and poor housing and this was um in particular with the introduction um of Medicare states were given a lot of federal money to tackle unemployment and a range of other issues in this period and they were therefore responsible for administering many of the national regulations and programs um and this money often came in the form of categorical grants though in which the fadal government specified how the state government could use it and this cooperative federalism was primarily under Democrat presidents 1970 to 19 90s when um there were mainly uh Republican presidents you have what was called as new federalism starting with President Nixon um and this sure saw a shift mostly under the Republican president as I said and it sort to give more power over how money should be sent back to the States and this was done rather than through categorical grants instead through block grants in which the federal government would give States money they could use however they wish within the readmit of a broad policy area such as education or policing much of this attempt to devolve more power back to the States was undermined by the fact that the size of most grants um reduced and there was an increased use of unfunded mandates using which uh the federal government would uh mandate the states to do certain things without providing any funding for it so a little bit of a um an extent to which that that state autonomy wasn't completely promoted but I think the idea was decreased size of the state generally um and a bit more autonomy for the states with block grants since the 1990s um it could be seen as effectively um the period of federalism can be seen as as a zigzag federalism um when more power and autonomy has been given to States in some areas in other areas the federal government has exercised stricter control um and the development of federalism has also largely been affected by events and partisanship in this period um as seen Below in relation to the four most recent present which we know have a look at so in relation to Bush um it's really interesting to first see the intention at the start of his um Premier sh prior to his uh becoming president and then the reality so he entered the the the presidency in 2001 like most Republican presidence do with a promise to shrink federal government spending and give lots more power back to the States really supportive of federalism in reality by the end of his presidency he presided over a huge expansion over the size of federal government and the amount of its spending um so it grew 33% in Bush's first term and can continue to be very high um in his second term and this is crucially due to events um so a massive increase um in National defense spending in response to 911 um and economic spending in response to the uh Financial craft in 2008 and also his policies though education um and Medicare in particular so firstly there's a massive um increase in spending um with the pursuit of the war on terum was once to 911 so defense vending increased um 125% um between 2001 and 2009 and then it certainly wasn't low in the first place um Homeland Security spending also increased from 30 million 2001 to$ 69 million in 2006 more than a 5x increase and after 200 2008 financial crash Bush also increased the size of the federal government it spending by taking control over two uh private mortgage companies um and sponsoring a 700 million pound uh million dollar bailout package for Wall Street Banks whil this did represent a huge increase in in spending it didn't encroach on the states and spending was in areas largely controlled by the federal government but it can be seen as as moving away from limited government really increasing the size of the state in terms of policies um the first is in terms of Education reform which Bush pursued with the No No Child Left Behind Act um which introduced major changes to education policy with Federal government's role in this area traditionally controlled by the states significantly increasing so Bush maned that states test children annually with a uniform natural test and provided a 20% increase in funding for the poor schools um and in 2003 as well Bush signed a law which significantly expanded Medicare including new prescription drug benefit um it was an estimated to cost 400 billion dollars um in its first 10 years and it was a significant expansion in the size of the federal government and was hence opposed by a number of Republicans so uh seven Republican Senators and 25 Republicans in the house oppos the measure then if we move on to Obama see Obama's administration's intention to deliver change in domestic policy resulting the federal government again playing an increased role in the areas of policy tradition reserve for the states so federal government assistance to States increased from 3.7% of GDP in 2008 to 4.6% um that says 2008 um I think that should be 2010 um with 246 billion pounds of Obama's economic stimulus package in 2009 going to or through the states compared to just 20 billion um of bushes in 2008 so government assistance significantly increased um and spending went into Healthcare and education in particular the expansion of Medicaid and the re authorization of state's Children Health insurance program and the race the top education program um and the expansion of Medicaid to more Americans requires states to either join it or lose Federal funding for their existing Medicaid provision this was a federal mandate uh a controversial increase in federal power over Health there was challenge in court by some Republican states and then struck down as unconstitutional in 2012 that can see whereas with federalism was arly threatened but then protected um by the Constitution in terms of trump um in some areas he sought to encroach on federal power whilst in other areas sought to Grant more power back to the States and I think this is reflection of the fact that the period can be kind of defined by by zigzag federalism um so rather than by any kind of ideological attempt to increase or decrease federalism it was largely dependent on which help deliver his policy so in response to uh black lives matter protest Trump deployed federal troops to tackle the protest despite several States um opposing it and policing being a poli polic traditionally controlled by the states um then Trump rolled back a lot of Obama era environmental policies um with the intention of reducing the effess of environmental legislation and handing power over these policies back to the States again no under Trump federal spending and the size of the federal deficit continued to increase um in large part due to the response to uh covid um and the $2.2 trillion cares act um this being said he did largely leave responsibility for dealing with Co to the states Democrat States pursuing lockdowns and mass mandates U and Republican states being far more relaxed um Trump promis in the 2016 campaign to cut so much of the federal government your head will Spin and he succeeded in doing so by introducing the first reduction in the federal Workforce since the 1990s through a reduction in political appointees so in some ways he reduces the size of the state in other ways in of the number of appointees but the size the St terms of economic um spending and size continue to increase in some areas he increased encroachment in terms of over federalism in some areas he pulled back wasn't really a concerted effort there of Biden so far it isn't yet clear but there are a couple of things worth noting the significant parts of the inflation reduction Act pass in 2001 require federal state cooperation to implement such as federal grants to address air pollution and improve the Energy Efficiency of homes tensions between the federal government and Republican states remain high with several Republican states seeking to thwart bid's gun control proposals by passing laws Banning the enforcement of federal firearm statutes and there's also been significant tensions as we'll look at in future videos um between Texas in particular and other Southern States and the federal government in relation to immigration and the Border War um with Mexico okay so what we're going to have a look at now is federalism in practice today starting by looking at case studies of federalism in practice so first one of these is covid-19 as I said um when when looking at Donald Trump's response to federalism a lot of the control over over respon the response to covid was um given to the States and its impact can be seen u in the fact there's significant variation between the states and the federal government's ability to dictate policy was very limited so Democrat Le States imposed far more stringent policies including Mass mandates and lockdowns um the Republican states um particularly during the first year of the outbreak so California's Mars mandate ended in March 2022 compared to Texas's which ended a year earlier in March 2021 there was some effective federal government policy in particular the cares act which included uh 300 billion um dollars in uh onetime cash payments to individuals and families once he became President Biden tried to develop a more effective and thought out strategy for tackling Co than Trump had but struggled with the lack of federal power um so he could impose lockdowns or a nationwide Mass mandate was limited to actions such as imposing a mass mandate in federal government buildings and on public transports that really shows how federalism was affected eff L working and limiting and limiting government in particular um was working with the lack of effective uh federal policy and significant variation between the states could be seen as a key reason for the US's relatively High uh death per capita from Co the legalization of cannabis um is also a really good um example of federalism in practice and variation in policy the use and possession of cannabis is still technically illegal under federal law due to the 1970 Controlled Substances Act um which should Trump laws legalizing cannabis due to the suprem supremacy clause um in um the Constitution despite this many states have legalized cannabis because the Obama Administration stated that they would allow it and wouldn't fund federal government application of the law um and the Obama Administration thought that states would be a useful laboratory to test the effectiveness of the policy and today 38 states have legalized the medical use of cannabis whilst 23 states have legalized the recreational use of cannabis as well and California has legalized the cational and medical use of cannabis Florida for example has legalized just medical use in Texas has legalized neither sanctury cities are another really good example so their cities that prohibit local law enforcement from helping Federal immigration officials uh to identify illegal immigrants unless those immigrants have been charged with a serious crime today there over 600 sanary cities in the US including California as a whole being a sanary state and they represent the power of the states to resist Federal power and resist um Federal immigration officials in particular in 2017 president Trump signed an executive order that withheld federal grants with sanary cities um however is declared unconstitutional and it's implementation was stopped in November 2017 and this shows how the 10th Amendment of the Constitution protected state power as judges interpreted it as preventing the federal government from commandeering States state governments to do something and they weren um given the power to do in the Constitution final key example is the AAL Care Act um so the legal um and is in particular legal developments in relation to it and its relationship to Supreme Court after it was passed in 2010 and this could be used to show both the resilience of state power and the extension extension of federal power so on the one hand Supreme Court struck down one of the Affordable Care Act Provisions as unconstitutional in a 2012 ruling um after attorney generals in 27 States filed lawsuits so it's actually the states who were who were challenged in the policy themselves so the aca's requirement that um States expand Medicaid or lose their existing Federal funding for Medicaid programs was declared to be an uncons overreach unconstitutional overreach of federal power and was struck down and as a result States could still not expand Medicaid and keep their existing Medicaid funding after this ruling on the other hand they upheld the majority of the ACA including in 2015 when they judged that in if States refused to run health insurance exchanges the federal government was allowed to step in and do so this represented support for significant Federal Power Over States we'll have a look at now is the consequences of federalism so first significant variation in culture um policy and ideology um between States on a wide rate of issues including education marriage drugs and the death penalty this can be seen in the differences in relation to cannabis Sanctuary cities and covid-19 I mentioned across States there's also a big difference in terms of culture and ideology and demographics um which have a significant bearing on political support the Deep South including Texas is more conservative uh more like to support the Republican party though actually increasingly becoming a swing state whil the Northeast including New York is more liberal and likely to support the Democrats states can also be seen as policy laboratory so um they can experiment with new policies and solutions um which means that federal government laws are sometimes first tried in States so Alaska implemented Universal basic income um Which presidential candidate Andrew Yang advocated for implementing a federal level in 2016 this could also be seen in the affordable carat in uh 2010 which was modeled on Healthcare reform in Massachusetts earlier in 2006 tensions between states and federal governments also um very significant um particularly states that aren't controlled by the same party as the president U one of the consequences of this is that legal challenges against the federal laws are often led by the states and this was seen in the challenges to Obamacare and in the overturning of roie Wade in 2022 there's also significant complications in responsibility so those some areas of policy are controlled exclusively by the states or by federal government others are shared and this this leads to um the administration of certain policies such as policing and education um well now education after after bushes reforms in particular being complicated so the tax system for example is highly complex due to the fact that income tax is levied by both uh federal and state governments um as well as kind of property and other taxes varying between the states and another conqu consequence of Federalism is decentralized elections and political parties so in the US political parties are decentralized with 50 Republican parties and 50 Democrat parties which leads to significant variation and makes it difficult for presidents um and Central party leaders to control um and this can be seen in elections as well with each state running their own elections and having their own rules this is true for president um including for presiden presidential election sorry with the electoral college system so there's different rules whether prisoners can vote in each state for example in Maine and Vermont prisoners can whilst in V Virginia um those convicted of a can't even vote after leaving prison final thing I thought we'd have a look at before looking at the debates is the Democrat and Democrat and Republican attitudes towards federalism so in the last century Democrats have largely been supportive um of the extension of federal power seeing it's necessary to help the whole of society and Tackle with problems including unemployment and lack of access to healthcare it's going to be seen in the the New Deal uh the Great Society reforms and Obamacare and all of these programs included categorical grants According to which the federal government specified how the state governments could use them historically the Republicans have been far more support supportive of federalism and protecting state power than Democrats so Republican presidents including Nixon and Reagan um during the 60s 70s and 80s sought to decrease the size of the federal government andure that when Federal money was given to States it was done so in the form of block grants which gave States more power and autonomy over how money could be spent within a broad policy area Okay so the final thing we're going to have a look at um is some debates in relation to federalism and in relation to the US Constitution as a whole so first looking at the extent to which the US remains Federal today starting with arguments that the fed the US does remain Federal today is that the 10th Amendment can be kind of ensures that the power of states are protected from federal overreach as s in relation to Trump's executive order um in relation to Sanctuary cities there's significant variation in policy culture and ideology between the states and states can act as policy Laboratories to improve federal government policy the very difficult Amendment process ensures that the constitution can't be changed to infringe upon state power without State consent um and states are able to take a different direction to the federal government when they disagree certain Democrat controlled states have introduced San cities which interfere with the implementation of federal immigration laws and in response to the frudal Care Act many republican controlled States decided not to accept um new federal funding to expand Medicaid um instead keeping their existing Medicaid funding and provision they originally not able to do this and challenged it in court um until this part of the affordable car got struck down and they were able to USV Lopez 1995 which he looked at um in the previous video um looking well the first video actually on the Constitution looking at um its vagueness might have shift away from the expansive interpretation of federal power and implied powers that suem Court followed in most of the 20th century and the vast majority of spent by States is raised through state and local taxes whilst a lot of the federal funding is through block grants which give States significant autonomy in deciding how the money can be spent example of block grant is a Surface Transportation program which states can use to improve and maintain highways Bridges tunnels sidewalks and bicycle paths terms of arguments that the USA doesn't remain Federal today or kind of limits to um the effect of Federalism is that due to the expansion of federal power in the 20th century the US can be seen as no longer federal state major federal programs such as New Deal the New Deal Great Society and ObamaCare is having encroached um on policy areas historically control by the states such as Healthcare and employment is including through Federal mandates which impos national policies on all states um and Obamacare and Bush's education policies are good examples of this implied powers in particular the Commerce Clause and elastic um necessary improper Clause have Justified the growth of federal power through the 20th century whilst Constitutional Amendments including the 16th Amendment on on income tax introduced uh while exp introducing federal income tax if expanded Federal power further St are rely on the federal government for around a quarter of their income this allows the federal government to control State policy somewhat particularly through categorical grants um which specify how money should be spent so in 1984 for example Congress passed a national minimum drinking age act requiring states to raise their age for the purchase of alcohol to 21 or lose 10% of their Federal Highway funds All State uh 50 states complied though the law has been seen as s stepping the 10th Amendment and this really shows how Federal funding can be used to control by the federal government to impl and control State policy what we're going to finally look at is some debates over the Constitution overall first looking at um how Democratic the US Constitution is and some overall St strengths and weaknesses so first the arguments of the US Constitution is democratic is that the amendment process ensures the states and the population are protected against changes they don't support unless there's major support from them across the population federalism in the 10th Amendment um ensure that states are largely protected from um the federal government imposing policies um which they oppose imposing policiy which they oppose sorry the Bill of Rights and CH of rights are well protected in the Constitution um and the amendment process ensures this is unlikely to be changed separation of powers and checks and balances ensure democracy isn't threatened by one branch or individual gaining too much power and the consequent need for bipartisanship means that um under the norm of divided government policies can only be passed there based on compromise and have broad support further elections are very regular they're controlled by the states ensuring that that the elector is able to regularly vote out politicians they de to have failed to represent them effectively there's other strengths of the Constitution that are kind of separate from um it being Democratic is that the Vance of the Constitution and use of implied powers has allowed the Constitution to modernize in the 20th century without the need for the formal amendment process um and implied powers allow the core principles of the Constitution to be maintained and not threatened whil also allowing the document to be practically applied in politics in the 21st century and 20th Century the fact that the constitution is very difficult to amend it shows its key principles are well protected and the ill thought out reactionary amendments fail to be passed and the fact that the key rules of the US political system are codified in one relatively short document in that they're both easily followed and the US population is well informed about their political system and rights and finally judicial review enables Constitution to be flexible and involved with the changing society and in response to changing political circumstances even if the formal amendment process allows for Lal change terms of arguments that the US Constitution is undem ratic can we argue the very difficult amendment process is undemocratic because many proposed amendments have majority support from the population sometimes significant majority support from the population but um can't be passed due to a small majority blocking them due to the need for super majorities in both Congress and the states for example with the equal uh rights amendment the power of the federal government has significantly increased over the past uh Century many suggest the state power is no longer um protected from the federal government and the US political system is no longer Federal despite the Bill of Rights it can be argued the con Constitution doesn't adequately protect rights for example this can be seen in the Second Amendment um facilitating um Mass loss of life in school shootings separation of powers and checks and balances often needs to gridlock under divided government rather than um bipartisanship whilst under Unified Government uh it can be argued there are insufficient checks and balances um and whilst elections are frequent the elect called college is undemocratic and um as it states with smaller populations um having equal representation to states with larger populations in the Senate um those other weaknesses um of the US Constitution the use of implied powers allows Constitution to develop and change significantly without the consent of the population which the formal amendment process would guarantee and it can be argued that the federal government today is far more powerful than the founding fathers intended and envisaged the code of find an entrench Constitution gives unelected Supreme Court Judes an excessive amount of power in how they interpret the Constitution and allow change and the fact that the constitution has entrenched the amendment process very difficult leads to it failing to modernize and being very outdated the final thing we're going to have a look at in this video and in this whole of this Constitution and federalism topic is how the constition Constitution shapes us politics today firstly the ability of the Supreme Court to make interpretive amendments um through changing how the Constitution is interpreted um is highly significant in US politics today where has been SI shift to a conservative dominative Court in the past decade has resulted in a number of of Highly consequential changes including the overturning of Rie Wade and the Declaration that affirmative action um in college admissions is unconstitutional both of which were in 2022 federalism U and the protection of state rights is a highly relevant part of us politics um states often Le the charge against federal government laws they don't like through lawsuits such as in uh the Affordable Care Act the Electoral College allowed Trump to win in 2016 despite losing the popular vote um to Hillary Clinton so show how the Electoral College in the constitution is really significant the Bill of Rights in the constitution in general are highly relevant aspects of us Politics as can be seen in the politically charge nature of the Second Amendment and the separation of powers and system of checks and balances lead to significant contestation within Washington need to gridlock and the need for compromise so yeah that's everything um in terms of this video let me know if you got any questions or comments in the comment section below um and I'll see you in the next uh few videos which will be on Congress e