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GED Social Studies 1.1 Civics and Government
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Federalism 2532 Views
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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.
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
Full Transcript
- 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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