American Government › Section C · Federalism › Topic C.2
How federalism has evolved
The Constitution sketches federalism in broad strokes, so the line between national and state power has been redrawn many times: by Supreme Court rulings, a civil war, an economic collapse and changing political ideas about who should govern what.
In this topic
- A framework, not a manual
- McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
- Worked example: reading Marshall's reasoning
- Commerce, nullification and civil war
- Dual federalism: the layer cake
- Cooperative federalism: the marble cake
- The Great Society and civil rights
- New federalism
- Worked example: Wickard, Lopez and Raich
- The pendulum since 2000
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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