Under the Constitution, power is divided between the national and state governments. This sharing of power is known as federalism. Federalism in the United States can be seen as resulting from the political views of the founders, who were generally suspicious of strong government and wanted to establish a political system in which power was divided and checked.

The Constitution grants two types of powers to the national government: delegated power and implied powers. Delegated powers are those powers specifically assigned to Congress by the U.S. Constitution. These include the power to tax and spend money, the power to coin money, and the power to regulate interstate commerce. Implied powers are not stated in the Constitution but have been used to expand the powers of the national government. The necessary and proper clause does not give Congress unlimited powers; the clause only permits Congress to make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers and other powers granted to the national government.

The Constitution does not assign specific powers to the states. State powers are referred to as reserved or residual powers and are based upon the Tenth Amendment. States have the authority to pass laws that promote the health, welfare, safety, and morals of their citizens. Typically, this has permitted states to make laws in a wide range of areas, from transportation to voting to health and domestic relations. States, however, do not have authority over areas that are assigned to the national government, such as foreign affairs and interstate commerce.

Your paper should explain how the framers of the Constitution were concerned about the division of powers between the federal government and the state governments and the mechanisms they implemented in order to have a cohesive republic. Your paper should also include how this division of powers is functioning today. You will see that there are some restrictions on powers of the states and some guarantees by the federal government to the states.

From the syllabus

Best practice is to use professional journals

Pages: minimum four (4) FULL pages (excluding Sources/Bibliography) in Word format.

Sources/Bibliography page MUST be included. Minimum three (3) sources. Use and cite secondary sources such as books written by professional scholars or accurate/reliable online content such as Encyclopedia Britannica. DO NOT cite Wikipedia or any other non-professional/non-academic websites. These parenthetical citations (or footnotes/endnotes) MUST be included.