Blackwell Reference Online

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Federalism consists of two spheres of government, national and state, operating in the one political entity according to defined arrangements for sharing powers so that neither is sovereign over the other. According to William Riker (1964) , the activities of government must be divided in such a way that each government has some activities on which it makes final decisions. Daniel Elazar (1987) summed up federalism as a system of “self-rule plus shared rule” – self-rule in regional communities and shared rule at the national level. The older notion of federalism was an association of associations, or a league or confederation of independent member states whose delegates managed central institutions. This was the institutional form of the American Articles of Confederation that provided a weak form of national government during the War of Independence. In the 1789 Constitution, as explained in the Federalist Papers, the American founders created modern federalism by strengthening the powers of national government and making its key offices directly responsible to the people. Modern federalism was a significant innovation in both institutional design and popular sovereignty: the people became dual citizens, or members of the new national union while remaining members of the smaller state unions. Federalism was also a key feature of republican government, with powers controlled ... log in or subscribe to read full text