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Description:

This video explains Federalism and the quest for a fair balance between state and national power. It covers the progression and compromises of Federalism from the Federalist Papers through the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Federalism, a la Shmoop.

00:07

Any time you and your sibling have gotten into it with each another...

00:10

your parents have likely stepped into the ring to separate the two of you, and to get

00:13

you both to play nice.

00:17

Well, back when our country was even younger

00:19

than...you and your sibling...

00:20

...it got into some similar squabbles.

00:25

What we as a nation decided to do, mainly

00:28

as a result of the failure of the Articles of Confederation, was to engage in a political

00:33

system known as 'Federalism.'

00:36

Basically, control was to be split between both national and state governments.

00:42

In other words' they both got to play with the new Xbox.

00:47

There wasn't a strong centralized government in place before the Constitution was written and ratified.

00:53

It was just a bunch of separate states, each minding their own business, and setting their own rules.

00:58

So this idea of all the states being... minions, more or less... underneath the bigger umbrella

01:03

of one national government... freaked some people out a bit.

01:08

But... the whole "Articles of Confederation" experiment had gone awry.

01:12

It was clear that the states needed a little hand-holding.

01:16

Some people were able to recognize the positives, however.

01:20

The 10th Amendment gave whatever powers that weren't in the federal government's control to the states...

01:26

...so it wasn't like Big Brother was stepping in to rule over all with an iron fist.

01:31

They were just trying to... divvy things up a little more fairly.

01:36

It also provided a nice little compromise. No crazy, King George the Third types would be in charge...

01:44

...but there would be no wussy, powerless government - like there was under the Articles of Confederation either.

01:52

So, in order to outline an argument for the

01:54

ratification of the Constitution and for a strong central government...

01:57

...a few of our founding fathers; namely James Madison, John Jay and Alexander Hamilton,

02:02

created the Federalist Papers.

02:05

The Papers were published serially over the course of about a year, so American citizens

02:10

were introduced gradually, rather than all at once, to the ideas of these three great thinkers.

02:17

And you thought it was tough waiting each week for a new Breaking Bad episode...

02:22

But while they swayed many minds, there were still plenty of staunch Anti-Federalists...

02:25

...most of whom were in favor of a weaker federal government.

02:29

They had done the whole maniacal tyrant thing already and were worried the door was being

02:33

left open for such a thing to happen again.

02:37

However, most of them eventually caved and went along with the majority...under the condition

02:42

that there be added to the Constitution a "Bill of Rights"...

02:52

This was back in the days when opposing members

02:54

of the government could actually agree on some things...

02:59

All the states eventually ratified the constitution...

03:04

...and the federal government and the states lived happily ever after...

03:08

Or did they?

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