Dual Federalism: National And State Governments

Federalists were property owners, creditors, and merchants. They believed that elites were the most fit to govern. They feared "excessive democracy" because they thought uneducated people would get into office. Federalists favored a strong national government and they believed in "filtration," which was when only elites could obtain governmental power. The leaders of the Federalist party were Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and George Washington.

One type of federalism is dual federalism. Dual federalism is a system in which many fundamental governmental powers are shared between federal and state governments. States possessed a vast amount of governing power, resulting in states controlling important policies that affected the lives of

National and state governments share powers and resources through intergovernmental cooperation. This move of federalism from dual to cooperative is like moving from layer cake federalism to marble cake federalism. The intergovernmental cooperation and sharing have blurred a once-clear distinguishing line, making it difficult to say where the national government ends and the state and local governments begin. In layer cake federalism, the responsibilities of the national government and state governments are clearly separated, while in marble-cake federalism, national, state, and local policies overlap in many places and there is no clear division. Next came New Federalism, created by Ronald Reagan.

This type of federalism returned power to the states through block grants and aimed to reduce the national government's control. Federalism has changed dramatically over the course of many years, but finding the right balance among states and the federal government is a difficult challenge to overcome. One of the most challenging problems that federalism faced is whether the states are using funds for the purposes