Dual Federalism According To The Challenge Of Democracy

Clearly, the contending views on federalism models are often associated with political ideology. Republicans tend to support the dual (layer cake) model, while democrats are more closely aligned with the cooperative (marble cake) model because it supports a stronger national government (Lecture 3 Federalism).Dual federalism implies the existence of distinct layers of government, each with powers in their own spheres; these powers are not mixed or shared (represented by the layer-cake metaphor). For example in the the layer cake model the national government rules by enumerated powers only (supported by the Tenth Amendment),has a limited set of constitutional purposes (despite the implied powers of the elastic clause) and the states are each sovereign within their own spheres. …show more content…
According to the Challenge of Democracy, “a rigid wall separates the nation and the states.After all the states created the nation, by implication they can set limits on the activites of the national government” (Challenge of Democracy).From the state’s perspective, this line represents a protection of sorts against federal government intrusion into their space and power. This concept of state power is also often referred to as state’s rights.
On the otherhand, cooperative federalism blurs the distinction between national and state powers.It states that you can’t have a distinct line of authority between national and state government. In reality, depending on the issues, it may be necessary for national government to overlap and intermingle with state government. In effect, national government would have more