Sovereignty without state intervention

Sovereignty is the ability for a state to govern itself without interference from outside governments or individuals. This means that any state that is under another one’s influence is not fully sovereign, even if they choose to believe they are. The federal system gives states autonomy over lawmaking within their borders, as long as they do not violate citizens’ rights or oppose any federal laws. The purpose of government is to protect their citizens from foreign interference, as well as set the laws for the people to follow in their everyday life.

Federalism arose from the fear that one government would be too large and hold too much power. America started with a Dual Federalism system, where different levels of government have different responsibilities.

However, as time progressed, the system changed to cooperative federalism, where it was harder to draw the line between state’s authority and the federal authority. In the modern age, states have started extending their power by ruling on controversial reforms.

This includes the rulings on recreational marijuana passed in Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Alaska, Vermont Maine and Massachusetts. Similarly, many other states have now decriminalized medical marijuana. States have the power to establish local governments, conduct elections and provide for the safety, health and welfare of its residents. Under article five, an amendment to the constitution requires ¾, or 75% ,of states to approve an amendment to the constitution before it can be signed in. This is one major way the states aid in the decision making process at the federal level.

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Elezar has three different types of political cultures, Moralistic, Individualistic, and traditional. The moralistic political cultures originated in New England with Puritanism at its center. In this culture, government is viewed as a public service. Its role is to improve living conditions and to create a just society within the community. The government influences people to view political participation as their duty and to expect that government will be used to advance the public good. The individualistic political culture emerged out of westward expansion throughout the 19th century. These people view government as an enemy. They believed the government wants to limit their freedoms, and therefore they want to limit the government’s power and scope. Individualistic culture believes government intervention should be limited.

Traditionalistic political culture developed out of the South. It is rooted in cast system-like notions of society and government. In traditional political culture, governmental policymaking falls to a few, powerful, citizens and the policies are designed to preserve the elites. Descriptive representation is the idea that the elected representatives represent the expressed preferences of their voters. For example, if a percentage of individuals come from a Hispanic background, that percentage should be visible in the government seats. Proportional representation is when the seats are divided up by the percent of people who have that opinion. If 60% of people believe in an idea, 60% of the seats in a government should also hold that same idea. For example, social conservatives in Texas would not like the government to use its power to restrict gambling. This is an example of individualistic political culture. With this, Texans traditionally vote to limit government authority by electing officials via party voting.