Federalism

What is Federalism? It is "a mode of political organization that unites separate states or other polities within an overarching political system in such a way as to allow each to maintain its own fundamental political integrity. They do this by requiring that basic policies be made and implemented through negotiation in some form, so that all members can share in making and executing decisions. The principles emphasize the primacy of bargaining and negotiated coordination among several power centers; they stress the virtues of dispersed power centers as means for safeguarding individual and local liberties."

There are approximately 196 countries in the world, 26 of which have a federal system of government. They are:

•  Argentina 
•  Australia
•  Austria 
•  Belgium 
•  Bosnia and Herzegovina 
•  Brazil
•  Canada 
•  Comoros 
•  Ethiopia
•  Germany 
•  India 
•  Iraq 
•  Malaysia
•  Mexico 
•  Federated States of Micronesia
•    Nepal
•  Nigeria
•  Pakistan 
•  Russia 
•  Saint Kitts and Nevis
•  South Sudan 
•  Sudan 
•   Switzerland 
•  United Arab Emirates 
•  United States 
•  Venezuela 

These countries include a large part of South America, all of North America and seem to include most a lot of the larger countries in the world. Both population wise and land wise. 

Unitary system is a system of political organization in which most or all of the governing power resides in a centralized government. It contrasts with a federal system.

There are 170 of these types of governments. The five largest by GDP are China, Japan, UK, France and Italy. Largest by population are China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Japan, and the Philippines. Largest by area are China, Kazakhstan, Algeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Saudi Arabia. 

A unitary system differs from the federal system because the power is very ordered. In a unitary system, The upper level government controls the lower level government and then both control the citizens. There is a power hierarchy. This can create a faster acting government, but it can also easily become unstable due to the large amount of power concentrated within few people. However, in a federal system, power and authority is shared between the upper and lower level governments which creates a more balanced power system in the government. This also allows citizens to have more power in their government. Decisions are typically made slower, but it also promotes compromise and stability. 

The cartoon shown below shows how often in a federal system, states want to have their own rights. They like to have the benefits of a federal system, such as money. However, most of the time they don't like to have the authority and responsibility that comes from making big government decisions. The federal system is not perfect, but is any system of government perfect?

The next picture demonstrates how sometimes the federal government and state governments disagree and it causes tension. Recently, marijuana has been legalized in some states but not across the whole country. In cases like this, it becomes difficult to determine what is legal and illegal. Medicinal use of marijuana is a case that is both confusing and difficult to take a stance on. 

The next photo is a clear example of how many federal governments believe that states should make choices and be involved but as soon as states decide something that is out-there or not similar to what the central government is saying, the federal government changes their minds and doesn't want the states to make their own decisions. 

The video says that federalism is like a three layer cake. Each layer handles different things and the issues become bigger and bigger with less people involved in decision-making the higher up the level of the cake(government) is. 

In the picture below, it depicts a federalist government differently. It's a marble cake, demonstrating how the different levels of government not only handle different issues but rely on each other and are very intermixed. Each layer of  government effects the other layers and they work together with separate powers.