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Basic Constitutional Concepts
the popular belief that there could be no liberty without State sovereignty,
it was thought by many Federalists in 1787 that the greatest threat to federalism was separatism, not consolidation. ‘‘It will always be far more
easy for the State governments to encroach upon the national authorities,’’ predicted Hamilton in Federalist No. 17, ‘‘than for the national government to encroach upon the State authorities.’’ History, of course, has
proved Hamilton wrong, and the trend since the early nineteenth century has been toward increased centralization, interrupted only by secession and the establishment of the Confederate States of America in the
Civil War period from 1861 to 1865. Since the New Deal and the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s, the pace of centralization has quickened, more and more functions of government once reserved to the States have been assumed by Federal authorities, and both
the States and their political subdivisions have lost considerable independence, power, and influence.
Federalism, as understood by the Framers, recognizes that the authority of the national government extends to a few enumerated powers only,
and that all powers not delegated by the States to the national government, nor denied to the States by the Constitution, are reserved to the
States. As Madison explained in Federalist No. 45,
The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State
governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised
principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign
commerce. . . . The powers reserved to the several States will extend to
all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives,
liberties and properties of the people; and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.
This understanding of federalism was made explicit in the Constitution
by the Tenth Amendment. Federalism, then, was viewed by the founding
generation as a constitutionally based, structural theory of government
designed to ensure political freedom and responsive, democratic government in a large and diverse society.
How and why federalism has declined is the subject of many studies.
It may be explained in large part by the transformation of the relation-