The short phrase created for this essay is dual federalism. Dual federalism is also referred to as the divided sovereignty or layer cake federalism. It is a political alignment in which power is separated between the state and federal government in comprehensively defined terms. The state governments execute the powers accorded to them with no interference from the federal government. Research shows that the U.S. constitution primarily represents an attempt to construct a robust union between the state and national governments (Lowi et al. 32). Stabilizing the national government gives a countrywide common market free of barriers and tariffs to commerce, a condition from which all states will carry out their services to Dual Federalism their benefit. A national government of that format could also offer the common defense that is more effective than it would happen under any Articles of Confederation. Although certain governmental authorities during the start of the 21st century were counted for the national government, the United States Constitution recognizes the state’s sovereignty as something that should be fully catered for in the law. Dual federalism boils down to an ever-growing body of law. The course has been toward the federal government to gain more and more power in criminal justice over the years from the time the constitution was written.
Dual federalism reflects the nature of relationships across government tiers as guaranteed in the Tenth Amendment, which promises a balanced relationship between state and national government (Lowi et al. 37). This provision of the constitution that defines the state’s powers and national government is called the reserved powers amendment. According to the reserved amendment, all governmental powers that are not explicitly given to the central government in the constitution are left under the state’s governments’ leadership and their people. From the time of civil war, it could be seen that there were Americans who advocated for the notion of dual federalism and sovereignty. These are two systems of accomplishing distinct goals without significant overlap in their functioning.
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Dual federalism has been effective because it allows states not to be taxed to finance the federal government, and this is a principle that has sufficed the test of time to the present day. The American states are accorded a considerable amount of autonomy in forming their own legal systems and institutions. All this is to happen on the condition that the authority of the national government remains unchallenged as it is constitutionally recognized to act. Consequentially, states upheld a significant degree of sovereignty in some scenarios executing powers that are concurrently shared with the federal government. Looking at the government’s structure and composition in the 21st century, it can be seen that America had feasible dual federalism during the 18th and 19th centuries. This can be explained by the fact that the practice scope was confined to and more straightforward than in the 21st century. Additionally, in the past centuries, both government tiers had a strong sense of concurrent, enumerated, and retained power being carried out within an implementable constitutional legal framework (Lowi et al. 40).
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The federal-state relationship used to be very simple in the starting years of the republic in part since citizens focused mainly on their local communities to offer a sustainable existence. From that period to the end of the 20th century, most Americans lived in rural settings, mainly farming and selling products in their small towns. As a result, there was little overlap in government operations, creating the chances of conflict over resources or concerning effects of private or public choices. We have politicians who have argued that dual federalism was best suited for serving in pre-industrial America because it has failed to prove effective and insurmountable in due course. Consequentially, power and responsibility for policies and programs have shifted to existing arrangements to ensure there is little tension between the national and state governments (Kincaid 60).
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Often forgotten in this robust tag of war between the national and state governments is the third-tier government’s presence inside every jurisdiction across the United States of America known as the local government. The phrase local government, in this case, refers to the governing bodies of myriad counties and cities of America. Policies and programs have now shifted to the local governments. As a result, today, they are perceived as essential to criminal justice since most of the workload witnessed in the criminal justice department is catered for on the local level. In contemporary America, the majority of police officers are employed by the municipal city level tier. The country government employs many correctional and law enforcement officers in line with Sheriff’s Department’s auspices (Kincaid 50).
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In the 21st century, dual federalism has led to creating a third layer of the cake at the grassroot level called the local government. They have related legal and administrative functions with the national states’ authorities. For example, for legal requirements, most county and local agencies are treated as state agencies. County deputies and municipal police officers are granted the power to enforce state laws. However, they can do nothing about breaking the federal laws other than forwarding a case to the federal authorities.
Moreover, local governments are also facilitated to implement trivial laws called ordinances. These minor laws play a significant role in the criminal justice system as they are regarded as violations that only result in someone giving a fine. This is explained by the fact that neither the state nor national government can entrust the local governments to enact laws that punish by imprisonment.
Dual federalism has led to a huge intergovernmental interdependence in various fields. Today there is a hierarchy of laws such as Article six of the American constitution requiring the national courts to trumps state law every time a conflict emerges. This narrows down to the hierarchy of courts whereby there is a dual court system across America’s united states as a result of the direct influence of American federalism. There is an independent and a complete federal court system, and there is also a somewhat complete and independent state court structure across all the states in the U.S. The concept of separation of powers does not signify that the courts are entirely independent of other government branches (Kincaid 48).
The laws arbitrated by the federal courts, for instance, are passed in Congress and signed by the President. In turn, the federal courts have an obligation to determine the federal laws’ constitutionality and settle other accompanying disputes over them. Also, judges rely on the executive arm of the government to implement some court policies. From these few scenarios, it can be seen that the inception of dual federalism is caused a lot of interdependence among different intergovernmental authorities. Due to interdependence, there has been a simultaneous pursuit of collective and individual liberty welfare, which has a severe problem affecting the country in the demand of the best philosophies of operations. In the modern environment, many of our local and state authorities endeavor to collaborate to give sustainable help to the communities to ensure the common good for present and future American generation
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