Advantages and Disadvantages of the Unitary, Confederation and the Federal System of the Government

Unitary governments, like Great Britain, do the opposite: the smaller governments have much less of a say in the government, like a big headed octopus. Great Britain has Kings, Queens, and Prime Ministers who act as the more powerful people of the

This compound government is called federalism. As shown in the diagram in Document A, some of the powers given to the central government include: regulating trade, declaring war, and making immigration laws. The federal government makes laws that will affect all American citizens. As shown in the diagram in Document A, Some of the powers given to the states: establish schools, pass marriage and divorce laws. Local and state governments make laws that will affect the community and citizens in the state.

The concept of federalism centers around the state and federal government dividing and sharing powers. James Madison wrote in Federalist Paper #51 that under the Constitution, “The different governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself”(Doc A). The reason the framers of the Constitution put Federalism into practice was to prevent the Central Government from having all of the power, thus preventing a tyranny. Most of the central government’s sole powers have to do with foreign affairs, such as trade, war, immigration, and the military(Doc A). The states have the power to decide local laws and set up local governments and schools(Doc A).

Federalism is power divided between central and state government. The state governments can establish schools. The central government can declare war. The state government powers are local and the central government have nationwide powers (Federalism venn diagram). It provides double security by giving both the government and states the same/equal important power, Federalism guards against tyranny because it ensures that two levels share, one can’t accumulate.

Federalism is a dual (split in two) system of sovereignty, splitting power between a central government and various state governments. Both the federal and state governments can directly govern citizens through their own officials and laws. The resulting Constitution allowed powers for both federal and state governments. Each had some separate powers and some shared powers.

In unitary, the central government has all the power, they can also take away the power of state and local governments, in a confederation, the states have more power than the central government, and in a federal government, equal distribution of power among the states

They were a few shortcomings and advantages in the new government under the Articles of Confederation I would like to discuss. First of all the weaknesses that articles of confederation have gone through were certain people in the congress lacked leadership, could not tax, there militia or military was small, and one vote per state. The advantages they had were that they could borrow money and make peace also sign treaties. There were several sentiments and ideas. The “new vision want to make political authority legitimate and secure liberty” (Wilson, 2008, p.20). The system of government was established by articles to respect liberties given to them. Founding fathers replaced the document because certain states used the document for different

One of the main disadvantages of the Articles of Confederation was that it encouraged a weak central government. Because nine out of thirteen states had to agree upon a law in order for it to be established, very few laws were passed. Amendments of the Articles of Confederation were never passed because the vote had to be unanimous. Not many decisions were made and the Congress generally only had the power to make treaties, deal with foreign affairs, and declare war. The Articles of Confederation read, “Each state shall contain its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right…” (Article II) The states had the most power and the Congress very rarely made decisions that affected the internal affairs of the states or country. There was only one house of Congress where each state only had one vote. This did not allow the bigger states with a greater population to have an advantage over the smaller states, which one could perceive as unfair in certain circumstances. Also, there was no judicial branch, which meant that if a case was not solved on a state level, it had nowhere to go. Fundamentally, the states held the most power. The lack of power within the Congress led to economic crisis.

Federalism is our country's system of government, in this system powers are divided between the national government and the states, they also share some powers together. Federalism helps the nation work properly to where the power is divided pretty equally. This system includes powers that belong to the National Government, State Governments, and Shared Powers, which are powers shared by both the National Government and State Governments.

When it comes to federalism, it is not the easiest to pinpoint the exact meaning. Federalism can be defined as the distribution of power in an organization between a central authority and a voting member of a community (Merriam, Webster). It can be described as one of two fundamental organizational principles of the U.S Constitution. The other basic organizational principle, such as separation of powers, involves the distribution of powers within the National Government. It is said that federalism is the single most important protection for our freedom ( Nagel, 181). There are many different types of federalism, including Dual, Cooperative, Regulated, and New federalism.

Federalism has evolved throughout American history. At different points in time, the balance and boundaries between the national and state government have changed substantially (resulting in the dual federalism, cooperative federalism etc.). Dual federalism which can also be referred to as divided sovereignty draws a clear distinction between federal and state governments, with the state government exercising the powers given to them without the influence of the federal government. It can further be supported by the Tenth Amendment which states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people.” Cooperative Federalism is defined as the cooperative functioning of the state, national and local governments. The American ensemble functions according to the New Dual Cooperative Federalism.

In the Unites States of America Federalism is the basic structure of the American government; it is the distribution and balance of powers between the National government and the States government. In order to obtain a compromise between those who wanted stronger state government and those who preferred a stronger national government the founding fathers arranged and settled for a federal system rather than the alternatives of a unitary or confederal system. While both National and State governments each have specific powers and authority, they also share certain powers and must be able to cooperate effectively with each other.

Before discussing the pros and cons of different governmental systems, let’s know about the federal, unitary, and confederal systems? There are three systems of government exist today: federal, unitary, and confederal. Federal system is a medium centralized, Unitary system is highly centralized, and confederal system has a low-level centralization. Furthermore, federal system believes in the strong national government which shares power with the

Decentralization transfers the authority and responsibility for public functions of central government to subordinate government organizations. Power is decentralized in the U.S. political system as it aims to give citizens more power in decision- making processes. It is also spread throughout the system rather than being concentrated to one government. The power of the government enhances the power of individuals and also make it easier for individuals to participate in the government. It also supports democratization by giving citizens more influence in the formulation and implementation of policies as it enhances transparency and accountability from the government. If there was a centralized federal government and were to make a big mistake by implementing a destructive policy, everybody would suffer greatly. Since the large centralized governments are a concentrated source of political power, there can be serious problems when individuals become corrupted or fail to do their jobs. As for the centralized city governments, if they were to become corrupted or fail to respond to local residents, it would be much easier, than national governments, to hold accountable due to their small size. Since the United States do have a decentralized government all governments have their limits to their power and is dispersed through their system. Powers from the governments are decentralized in the U.S. political system, in order to, compose the distribution of power amongst governments

Federalism is a system of government that divides power between a national government and a regional government with the use of a constitution. Throughout the United States history, federalism has played a significant role in the constitution and the system of government adopted by the United States of America. Federalism has also changed throughout the course of America's history to fit the constitution and the government.