Inkwell Institute

Professor’s Classroom

Subject:  American History/Political Theory/Government

The reader now has all the tools they would need to make an informed case either pro or con for Federalism.  Ask yourself is there a future for Federalism?  If so, what would that future look like?  Should Federalism change with the winds or is it to be set in stone with only one meaning and one outcome?

Thomas Paine said this about Federalism during the debate on the Articles of Confederation:

“I consider the individual sovereignty of the States retained under the Act of Confederation to be of the second Class of rights (Civil Rights.) It becomes dangerous because it is defective in the power necessary to support it. It answers the pride and purpose of a few Men in each State- but the State collectively is injured by it.”

Virtually all systems of governance is seldom a stagnant entity….it almost always in evolving mode….federalism is no different…..the federalism that the founders saw for the East Coast does not necessarily work properly when there is a whole continent involved.  Federalism has got to change when other changes occur….changes like population expansion, urbanization, economic shifts and local political changes…all these feed the necessity for change in the way governance responds to the needs of the country.

My personal opinion is that Federalism is not the best way to govern…why?….over the centuries and decades, Federalism has come to represent the influence of wealth over the people’s welfare…it no longer represents the republican attitude of governance.  I guess if I were alive during the massive debate I would have been a Federalist….why?….this is a nation, a strong nation, but the petty little games being played on the state levels have given rise to the beast the James Madison warned us about in Federalist #10….factions is its name……a partisanship is its game.  The longer this type of divisiveness continues the more harm it does to the country as a whole.

I would like to thank the website thisnation.com for all its information on Federalism….