Richman 1

Grant Richman
Mr. Keller
A.P. Government
8 September 2015
U.S. FEDERALISM FOR DUMMIES
1. Define Dual Federalism.
Dual Federalism is when political power is divided between the states and the central
government. While power is divided, the central government always has more power than the states
according to the Supremacy Clause in article five of the Constitution. Dual Federalism allows the
state to exercise their power without having the central government interfere.
2. Explain Layer Cake Federalism and Marble Cake Federalism, and the difference
between them.
Dual Federalism is known as Layer Cake Federalism because of the distinct layers of
authority within the government. The states being one layer and the central government is another.
Cooperative Federalism is also known as Marble Cake Federalism because of the mixture of
authority. The authority is mixed between the state, local, and national government. The difference
between them is that one of them has distinct layers of authority while in the other, the states and
the central government cooperate and discuss on which matters each controls.
3. How is Creative Federalism different from Cooperative Federalism? Why was
creative Federalism hard to swallow for many Americans, especially Conservatives?
Creative Federalism is where the central government provides services for the states and
determines what they control and what they need. Yes, Creative Federalism is different from

Richman 2

Cooperative Federalism. Cooperative Federalism is where both the states and central government
decide who does what while Creative Federalism is decided by the central government. Creative
Federalism was hard to swallow for many Americans, especially Conservatives because this
reminded them of the government that they had back in Great Britain. They were also worried a
lone tyrant would come out on top of the government.
4. Explain devolution. Give and explain the type(s) of federalism where devolution
occurred?
Devolution is where the central government transfers their power to the state or local
government. Devolution is also known as decentralising. Devolution occurs in competitive
federalism and new federalism.Competitive federalism is where power from central government is
transferred to the state government. In new federalism, power is returned to the states and is
shrinked from the central government. New federalism was around when Nixon was president.
5. With Fiscal Federalism, give and explain the various types of grants listed.
Fiscal federalism is used to describe the money side of federalism. Formula grants are grants
designed to deal with problems like the percentage of poor children in a state. A competitive grant
are programs to see who can come up with the best idea in order to get the most money like the
obama teaching administration.