1. Explain the difference between federal and centralized systems of government, and give examples of each.

A centralized government is one where one body makes all the important decisions and handles all the responsibilities for the nation (or state). On the other hand, the federal government shares the power between the national and state governments. England had a centralized government because they didn't believe that common people would be able to govern themselves. Our own U.S. government is a federal government. 2. Show how competing political interests at the Constitutional Convention led to the adoption of a federal system, but one that was not clearly defined. The purpose of the Constitutional Convention was to make changes to the Articles of Confederation. However, the delegates were at dissent on many ideas. For one, the Virginia Plan called for a strong national government while the New Jersey Plan wanted to limit federal powers and enlarge plans held by the Continental Congress. In the end, they came up with the Connecticut Compromise, which stated that representation in the HOR would be based on population while each state would be guaranteed an equal two senators in the new Senate. They also came up with the idea of federalism, so that both states and the national government would share power, although at the time it was not discussed who would have more of the power. 3. Outline the ways in which the courts interpreted national and state powers and why the doctrine of dual federalism is still alive. In Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal courts have the duty to review the constitutionality of acts of Congress and to declare them void when they are contrary to the Constitution. Marbury was the first Supreme Court case to strike down an act of Congress as unconstitutional. Dual federalism holds that states and the federal government are co-equal in the federal system, and that the structure of government is a kind of layer cake. 4. State why federal grants-in-aid to the states have been politically popular, and cite what have proved to be the pitfalls of such grants. Federal grants-in-aids to states have been politically popular because of the election funds needed each year. The pitfalls of these grants are that in accepting them, states are submitting to the national government and feel indebted to pay them back in some way. In other words, the national government is taking more power from the states. 5. Distinguish between categorical grants and block grants or general revenue sharing. Categorical grants are grants, issued by Congress, which may be spent only for narrowly-defined purposes. They are the main source of federal aid to state and

local government , which can only be used for specific purposes and for helping education, or categories of state and local spending. A block grant is a large sum of money granted by the national government to a regional government with only general provisions as to the way it is to be spent. They allow regional governments to experiment with different ways of spending money with the same goal in mind. Under revenue sharing, Congress gave an annual amount of federal tax revenue to the states and their cities. While it was popular with state officials, it lost federal support during the Reagan administration. 6. Explain why, despite repeated attempts to reverse the trend, categorical grants have continued to grow more rapidly than block grants. As opposed to categorical grants, Congress did not significantly increase the expenditures for block grants, national influence was was increased by creating health programs that could potentially have been made part of the block grant, and the block grant did not generally result in a reordering of spending priorities. 7. Distinguish between mandates and conditions of aid with respect to federal grant programs to states and localities. A grant usually comes with no cost to the state, while a mandate does. It helps if the state doesn't pass laws that override federal laws. 8. Define devolution and its roots. Devolution is the effort to transfer responsibility for many public programs and services from the federal government to the states. Some of the roots include the attainment of a majority by the Republican Party in both the House and Senate after the 1994 midterm elections, the suburbanization of America, and the spread of disillusionment with the federal government . 9. Discuss whether or to what extent federal grants to the states have succeeded in creating uniform national policies comparable to those of centralized governments.