Federalism

Your writing assignment in this course is in the form of amedium-length essay — you are to write on the topic of federalism, the course content that can be found in Module I. The following is required for your essay:
1.) Find a news article online that discusses some political issue involving the federal government in Washington D.C – I leave wide latitude to you in terms of what the issue is but please exclude those that largely concern matters of international relations (such as the arms negotiations with North Korea). You must provide a link to the news articlein your essay. To give you an idea of some appropriate issues:
• drug control
• welfare and other government programs
• environmental regulations
• policing issues, crime, riots, civil disturbances
• immigration
• government corruption
(You are of course not limited to these topics.)
2.) Briefly summarize the issue discussed in the article, relaying the basic facts, data, personalities involved, etc.You need not provide analysis here, just the facts. Do not get bogged down in the “pros & cons” of the issue, or turn the essay into a research paper on the issue itself.
3.)
Analyze the issue within the context of federalism and federal power: how does the issue demonstrate a political matter that is either within the proper powers of the federal government, or exceeds the proper powers of the federal government and therefore should be left to the states? You must reference the issue in the article to THREE pointsthat are SPECIFIC TO FEDERALISM from the lectureslides and/or readings.
If you find yourself in Module II or Module III, or on Wikipedia, your essay is likely far off base.
In other words, make sure your references are specific to federalism and not to civil liberties, checks & balances, or some other area not related to federalism. For example: an essay that analyzes some issue concerning the 1stAmendment and free speech, but does not relate it withspecific reference to federalism. Essays relying on contentunrelated directly to federalism will receive substantial markdowns.
While defining federalism and providing some basic data about federalism may certainly be employed in your essay, the three SPECIFIC points about federalism you reference must come from the following:
➢ passages in the Constitution – example: the 10thAmendment
➢ quotes from the Founders – example: Jefferson on “competence”
➢ quotes from the Federalist Papers – example: Madison on “few and defined” powers
➢ Supreme Court cases – example: McCulloch v Maryland
➢ references from the readings – example: George Washington’s “Circular Letter”
Essays that omit these types of SPECIFIC references to federalism and are limited simply to defining federalism, or to providing details such as “there are 89,000 units of government in the U.S.” would receive markdowns.

You are reminded that late essays or essays of less than 750 words will receive a ZERO.

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