How does Federalism secure liberty?

Answer 1

The answer as to how Federalism secures liberty can be found by exploring the Federalist papers. Specifically, Federalist papers #10, and #51.

Federalist #10 discusses the dangers of factions in American government and addresses the concerns of factions in a society. Factions are created by diverse views of society which come as a result of the freedom and liberty that a society has to create diverse opinions on public issues. In order to prevent any factions to gain total control of the government, the set up of the federal government is to be complicated with checks and balances are put in place to control factions and prevent a tyrannical government from forming with one faction being in control and suppressing the minority. The government set up with checks and balances is better prepared to deal with the political factions in society.

The factions created in the process of American politics and political development will be an inherent part of a free society and therefore cannot be contained or stopped. However, government could place methods to control, and deal with these issues of factions as they rise. The factions that form in order to participate in the American political process will not be able to constitute a majority and control the political and legislative process of the United States. Therefore, in an effort to get legislation formed and control the effect of factions in the federal government, the factions will have to compromise between one another in order to have an effect on the legislative and political process of the federal government if they wish to have any impact on the direction of the United States.

The theoretical perspective of pluralism helps explain the behavior of factions in Federalist #10 since pluralism can help explain that various factions will participate in the business of government and seek to have an impact on the legislative process of the United States. However, the theoretical perspective of new institutionalism explains how the American political institutions with its checks and balances seek to limit the impact of factions as political actors in the political institutions since the structural design of the institutions themselves prevent any faction from gaining ultimate control of the political and legislative process in the American political system. The theoretical perspective of pluralism would then explain that the factions would come together and try to work out a compromise on public policy matters in order to have an impact on the political and legislative process of the United States. The more factions come to compromise, the more broad the policy maybe that would represent the majority of the American people.

Federalist #51 discusses the structure of the federal government with its system of checks and balances. The federal government has been created to have different branches to better deal with a large society with many diverse issues. Those branches are the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. In order to have more transparency of the distribution of power in the United States, the federal government shares its powers of governance with state and local governments. The authority can often predominate to counterbalance the threat of excess power and these branches consist of elected politicians. The framers constructed the constitution to keep power with the plurality so ultimate power of the United States rests with the people. Federalist #51's ideas of checks and balances in the American system of government makes sure that power does not get concentrated in one branch or one level of government and so that the people of the United States remain the ultimate sovereign over the governance of the United States. Federalist #51's ideas of establishing three branches of government with different levels of government thereby creating a distribute system of power among different branches and levels of government is suppose to guarantee that the American people remain the sovereign of the United States and that a pluralist society would converge with many actors participating in the political process.

This system of government proposed under Federalist #51 can be understood through new institutionalism since the proposed system of checks and balances and the distribution of power among different branches and levels of government limit the activities of the political actors participating in the American political system. Different powers concentrated with different branches and levels of government limits the political power of each of the levels and branches of government. Checks and balances in place limit the desires of the political actors because of the institutional constraints of the government that are in place. With this system of checks and balances and the distribution of power in place, it limits the political actors from fully exercising their political and legislative ambitions in the government and thereby makes the people the sovereign of the United States with this system of checks and balances and distribution of power in place. New institutionalism can help understand pluralism through Federalist #51 since each branch is constrained from controlling the government because of the checks and balances system that is placed and thereby limiting the amount of action one branch can take without consent from the other branches of government. The theoretical perspective of pluralism then can explain the outcome of the constraints of power among the branches of government since the branches either have to come together and settle their differences on policy matters and moderate policy that can represent the majority of the American people, or the branches can't get over their differences on public policy matters and nothing gets done.

Answer 2

Federalists prefer a decentralized government that shares power so no single person or group can become too powerful. The United States has a dual Federalism system. What this means is that the federal government divides its power with the states.

Answer 3

Federalism is the division of power between state and federal government. Federal government secures personal liberty because of the amendments in the constitution.