I personally see “Federalism” as a very counterintuitive term when we are studying this political concept in American government. Naturally, we want to think of federalism as a situation where members of a group are bound together. However, the true meaning of federalism is actually the opposite because it refers to the apportionment of sovereignty and power to different constituents and units. Federalism is a concept that has been progressing throughout history and it can mean very different things depending on the period you are talking about. To make this easier, I have eliminated the more nuanced theories of federalism under the influence of globalization, wars, and terrorism. We will only focus on two major types of federalism: dual federalism
