Federalism is the distribution of powers that involves the U.S. Constitution. Initial Justifications One accurate but limited view is that states retained some degree of sovereign status for the simple reason that they existed prior to the Constitution of 1787 and were able to extract concessions as the price of ratification of the new Constitution. That is, the states were given a significant role in the new federal system because they were able to demand it. Taken to the extreme, this explanation implies that, because federalism was only a reflection of political realities, it serves no purpose other than to perpetuate those realities. While few fully endorse this position, aspects of it can be discerned here and there. As long ago as 1819,
