PSC 101
9/22/22
Week Four Lecture
In class today, we discussed chapter four which highlights the main points and meanings
behind nationalism and federalism. Federalism is considered to be the balance of power we, as
citizens of the United States, live with. It is the way the power is divided between federal, local,
and states. Anti-federalists and Republicans tend to want more power given to the states rather
than the federal government. A federalist wants a strong central government instead of power
given to the states. We also discussed why countries do not want illegal immigrants. Some of
the reasons being making the population too big, jobs are taken away, medicare, and race. 70%
of the people building houses are undocumented and/or illegal immigrants, meaning if illegal
immigrants left the country, the construction industry would be at risk. We also watched a video
in class about federalism. The analogy of federalism being like a layered cake was used in the
video. On the top layer of the cake, there is the national government which is also known as the
federal government. Underneath the top layer, there is the layer with the states and then below
the states, there is the local government. The video states that in today’s society, the cake isn’t
perfectly layered, it is kind of all mixed up and mixed together. We also discussed the
differences in the powers between the federal and state governments. The federal government
is the only form of government that can declare war, raise armies, conduct foreign affairs, and
regulate interstate. The state government is the only form of government that has the power to
conduct elections, establish local governments, ratify Constitution amendments, and regulate
intrastate commerce. Now, even though they have these differences, they have some
similarities. They both have the power to tax, make laws, enforce law, charter banks, and borrow
money. We also discussed the Civil War and how the south felt that owning slaves was a state
issue rather than a federal issue and that they should be able to own their “property” than have
the federal government