Federalism
Abstract
When it came to accepting federalism, the framers of the Constitution didn’t have much choice. Some division of powers between the central and state governments was a given. The decentralized confederation of states hadn’t worked well, and it would have been politically unthinkable to form a unified government ignoring the states that, after all, the framers did represent. What emerged was a distribution of responsibilities, with those given the federal government written into the Constitution and the more numerous ones remaining with the states.
Fields of Study & Subjects
American Constitutional Law and Politics
Political Systems and Governance
Legal and Constitutional Studies
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Routledge eBooks
- Pages
- 17–30
- Publication date
- 24 February 2026
- Language
- EN
- Document type
- Book chapter