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Rey Valdovinos
Dr. Martinez
POSC 100 Section #16
24 September 2015
Midterm Essay
Federalism works in tandem with, and assists, a direct democracy to create a more
effective government in which the people have a greater say in the matter and power is divided
equally between different bodies of authority. Unlike a representative democracy which consists
of elected officials whom represent a select mass of people, a direct democracy, also known as a
pure democracy, consists of a government by the people and solely by the people. The United
States government is an example of a representative government at the national level but at
certain state levels, the democracy is more direct than representative. California itself is an
example of a state government which is more of a direct democracy with its ballot initiatives,
referendums, and recalls. The people in California have more involvement in government affairs
than would people in a purely representative democracy. Federalism is what keeps the national
government from overpowering the state governments and vice versa and it assists a direct
democracy in several ways. The way federalism assists a direct democracy are as follows:
Experimenting, to Expanding, and to Ensuring. Let me further explain.
The first way federalism can assist a direct democracy is through experimentation.1 In a
federalism, power is divided between entities of authority. With that being said, the national
government is established first, then the state and local governments. Although the national
1

Christine Barbour and Gerald C. Wright, Keeping the Republic: Power and Citizenship in
American Politics (Los Angeles: SAGE, 2015), 86.

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government may be superior, that does not necessarily mean that it can do whatever it wants.
Each body follows a specific set of rules set up to make everyone pleased and content. By
allowing states and local governments to form their own government, this allows the people to
experiment with policies. And in a country like the United States, with fifty productive states
each with their own set of states and local laws, one could oversee the triumphs and fallacies of
the policies at play in each state; which policies work very well and could possibly be
implemented at the state level and which policies should never be passed ever again. In the end,
what should be recognized is that the people run their own government with no representation
other than themselves so separation of national, state and local levels is beneficial, especially to a
country with a larger population. The people in the direct democracy would be content because
they have a government close to home in which they can participate and contribute; federalism
strengthens direct democracy by that much more through experimentation.
Federalism not only divides but expands governments to national and state levels. What I
mean is that federalism is a way to separate a larger population into chunks of several smaller
groups. This allows, in a direct democracy, for people to have access to their leaders and to have
more opportunities to get involved in their government. The larger amount of groups allows for
diversity of responses, over time, to different situations2. This, again, allows everyone to be able
to contribute and participate.
Federalism ensures that, with the power divided into state and national governments,
tyranny should be stay at bay3. This is exactly what the founding father of the United States had

Barbour and Wright, Keeping the Republic. 82-83.

Barbour and Wright, Keeping the Republic. 74-75.

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in mind when building the constitution. They wanted a form of government to give enough
power to the people but not too much. However, in a direct democracy, a little more power is
given to the people. And along with federalism, that power is even distributed among groups
such as state and local governments. With that said, federalism assists direct democracy through
means of population disbursement meaning more and more people have a voice when
participating and contributing to government law and policy.
In conclusion, federalism assists direct democracy through experimentation of state and
local governments, people have a better chance and are ensured of their vote being counted
and their voice being heard in some way, shape, or form. And in the expansion of governments,
people are divided into smaller groups again giving people the opportunity to participate in
government affairs and contribute to the society as a whole.

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References

Barbour, Christine and Gerald C. Wright. Keeping the Republic: Power and Citizenship in
American Politics. Los Angeles: SAGE, 2015.