Question

Under the Constitution, the principle of "federalism" is the reason that power and responsibility are

A. shared by state and national governments

B. divided into three branches of government

C. limited to what is listed in the amendments

D. granted to the states through amendments

Answer 1

Divided between the central (federal) government and the governments of the states. The states retain a very susbtantial amount of power. For example, it is entirely up to the State of California whether to criminalize murder and rape, and to define the punishments for them. It's entirely up to the State of Virginia whether to recognize marriage between two men, or between three women, or between a donkey and a dog.

Not entirely entirely, I should say: anything that conflicts with the Bill of Rights or some of the Constitutional Amendmetns that deal with individual rights, e.g. the 14th, is unconstitutional. But generally the states have complete police powers, everything that is allowed to a government by tradition and common law.

By contrast, the Federal government can exert only those powers specifically granted to it by the Constitution (although the practical limits to that have been greatly eroded by Supreme Court decisions and tradition since 1900 or so).

This is to be contrasted with, say, England or France. In France a department, the equivalent of a state, has very limited police powers. It cannot declare something a crime, or not a crime. It cannot set policy on employment, marriage, inheritance, et cetera. Those things are all decided at the national level, by the national government. So France is not a federal country. Neither is England. Germany and Switzerland are.