Federalism and Constitutions, Essay Example

Federalism, a central concept grafted into the U.S. Constitution, stipulates that individual and states’ rights must be honored over federal initiatives. Issues that evince federalism in the United States include abortion, the death penalty, and the legalization of marijuana. Indeed, constituents in Colorado voted to legalize marijuana, and it remains the only state in the United States to do so, while state propositions in other states have failed to be passed by voters. There are various kinds of constitutions and types of federalism that are implemented in the United States, Germany, and Great Britain, among other countries. While in Germany and the United States the governments are demarked by strong federalism, Great Britain has a strong unitary government in place. China, the United Kingdom, and Spain have governments that have devolved and been decentralized. The European Union, on the other hand, is an example of federalism at the international level.

It is important to understand the various styles of constitutions and constitutionalism. Architectural constitutions, such as the Constitution in place in the United States, are process-centered and underscore rudimentary locations and divisions of authority and address what government institutions are in place and the authority each institution has. A substantive constitution retains some architecture of governmental process but also includes policy substance referred to as “rights” in addition to detailed policy. Examples of this type of constitution include India, South Africa, and California’s state constitution. Finally, there are unwritten constitutions, meaning there is no central document outlining policy and government process. Rather, the accumulation of traditions, practices, and precedents that are embodied in ordinary laws and can easily be altered via judicial proceedings. The United Kingdom has in place an unwritten constitution, which works because it is also unitary, meaning all governmental power is consolidated in the federal government. All subunits such as provinces or districts can be created by the federal government, and the federal government can grant or remove power from subunits. As such, some unitary governments are centralized while others are decentralized but are still considered to be unitary systems. The federal system of government such as the U.S. government constitutionally divides government activities between local and regional governments and the federal government in a way that the central government delegates power to various government levels. Each level of government is granted sovereignty. Both of these systems of government vary in practice according to certain political idiosyncrasies. There are more unitary government systems in the world than federal systems. Sound constitutions should never break with long-standing traditions, retain the capacity to be amended, and provide incentive compatability.

Federalism is a preferred system for some countries because of a variety of factors such as size, the politics of national creation, cultural (ethnic/racial/linguistic/religious) divisions, a system of checks and balance for controlling governmental power, and efficiency vis-a-vis the delegation of power and division of labor. Belgium is an interesting case of federalism because it is based on heritage and language and is catalyzed by economic discrepancies between the poor south and the wealthier north. The evolution of federalism in the United States is an interesting example of what types of powers are allocated to various levels of government. The national government is charged with the responsibilities of controlling the military, declaring war, coining money, and the regulation of interstate commerce. The central government thus has important tasks that are more removed from individual citizens. State governments police morals, address crime, oversee property and land use laws, oversee education and welfare. As such, citizens are more connected to government at the state level. The state and federal governments collaborate in the realm of civil rights and liberties, crime, education, the protection of the environment, and welfare.