Political Science 1100, Introduction to American Politics, September 2, 2009

Federalism

1. WHAT IS FEDERALISM?
 

In a federal political system, political authority is divided by a constitution between a central government and regional governments

    Examples: Canada, Australia, U.S.

 

(As Opposed To A Unitary System, Such As Britain Or France)

2. WHO CARES ABOUT FEDERALISM?
 

A. States Affect Everyone's Lives

 

B. States do things differently

 

3. FEDERALISM AND NATIONAL POLITICS:
 

        The jobs & population shift to the sunbelt

        Interstate economic competition

The Economic Shift to the Sunbelt
 

           The Political Shift to the Sunbelt:

Population Shifts Result In Shifts In ....

... The distribution of Seats In The House Of Representatives,

 

 

 
.... and Therefore in The Electoral College

 

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Civil Rights:
When Government Must Step in to Protect People 

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The Constitution left many unanswered questions about civil rights

    How Americans have answered three of these unanswered questions?

1) Unanswered Question #1
       

    Do slaveowners hold the balance of power in America?

 

    How did we answer the question?
     

       Political Compromise (Missouri Compromise)
 

 

 

 

 

2). Unanswered Question #2

        Can slaveowners start their own nation?

 

 

 

 

        How did we answer?
       

        Civil War
 

 

 

 

3). Unanswered Question #3
    

      Are African-American’s civil rights protected by the states?
     

 

 

       How did we answer?

        At first, by letting states decide (de jure segregation; "Jim Crow")

      

    Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896 upheld Jim Crow laws

 

 

    Then, de jure segregation was defeated in the mid-twentieth century by
        court decisions, social movements, and new national laws  

 

 

 4).    How did politics change civil rights?
 

  Brown versus Board of Education (1954) rejects de jure segregation in schools
 

     

 

 

        The Civil Rights Movement

 

 

      - The 1964 Civil Rights Act

 

 

     - The 1965 Voting Rights Act

 

 

5). The Civil Rights legacy

 

    a). The Civil Rights agenda expands to de facto segregation
 

• Housing (Fair Housing Laws)
  
   
• Schools (Busing)
  
   
• Jobs (Affirmative Action)

 

... and to other groups

• Gender: The Equal Rights Amendment
   
• Other Minorities: Hispanics
   
• Disability
   
• Gays