American Government › Section C · Federalism › Topic C.1
The division of powers
The United States splits power twice: across three branches, and between a national government and fifty state governments. That second split, federalism, decides who taxes you, who licenses you to drive and whose law wins when the two disagree.
In this topic
- Two ways to divide power
- Federal, unitary and confederal systems
- Powers of the national government
- Reserved and concurrent powers
- What neither level may do
- The supremacy clause and its limits
- Worked example: whose law wins?
- Relations among the states
- Money and local government
- Worked example: one errand, three levels
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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