Why Framers Chose Federalism

Introduction: Federalism is a system of government that divides governing power and authority between the national governments and the state governments (Bowman). In 1787, the framers of the constitution chose this specific type of government to rule over the United States. I will show you that the framers chose this system of government for several different types of reasons. Reasons are because the national government was not strong enough, to maintain the states sovereignty, and it will protect individual liberty. I will also show you how the 10th Amendment, Concurrent Powers, and Block Grants each apply to the federalist system of government. You will see why the framers chose Federalism and understand how Block Grants, Concurrent Powers, and the 10th amendment is important and ties into federalism.

Weak National Government A reason why framers chose Federalism is because the national government was not strong enough. The type of government that was already in action which was confederalism which made the states too democratic. There was no leadership. The separate individual states were actually considered stronger than the central government. Which made it so that the national government was unable to enforce laws and collect taxes as well as recommendations, having no national court system effective. There was a big lack of unity and common laws because the states were too independent and full of themselves. Federalism, on the other hand, gave the national government the power that they needed to be more in control, let them enforce laws and collect taxes and balanced out the powers between the national and state governments.

Maintaining The Sovereignty of The States Federalism also helped to maintain the sovereignty of every state. State sovereignty is the power of a state to do everything it can to self govern itself. This was very important because the states each valued their own uniqueness and this helped them to keep that.