The American political system is a federal system, which consists of division of a national government and state governments. However, it was not always a federal system, it was not based on the Constitution, but on the Articles of Confederation. This system divides authority between sovereign national and state government. Under the Articles of the Confederation, each state retained its ultimate governing authority. .“The power of government must be equal to its responsibilities. The Constitution was needed because the nation’s preceding system (under the Articles of Confederation) was too weak to accomplish its expected goals, particularly those of strong defense and an integrated economy (p. 60).” In this essay, it will be discussed how federalism changed our nation by a division of authority between two governments, nation and state.
The national government was weak, since it relied on the states for money the cost of national defense. They needed more power to strengthen the national defense system and add more army and navy recruits. Under the Article, the national government had the responsibility of the national defense; however, they did not have the power to impose taxes. They depended on the states for money to maintain the national defense and states did not comply. The national government had no way of obtaining the money from the states and there were no laws in place to force them to pay. Under the new governing system known as federalism the national government would have the responsibilities of the national defense, currency, post office, foreign affairs and interstate commerce.
