Federalism is a way of organizing a nation so that two or more levels of government; local, state and national, have control over the same area or people. The supremacy clause says that the laws of national gov are supreme over state laws. Given that the government is acting within its limits. However, the state and national governments have powers separate from each other. Power of the national government is increased by things like categorical grants and federal mandates. Categorical grants increase to power of the national government by giving a state money that can only be used for specific things and have a lot of strings attached so the state has no choice in how to spend it. Federal mandates also increase the power of the national government by forcing the state to comply by threatening to take something away. An example is state drinking age and fedral highway funding. The government told the states that they could choose their drinking age but if it is under 21 they will not fund their highway system. Block grants and the tenth amendment have been used to increase the power of the states. Block grants increase state power because the fedral government gives the state money with few restrictions. The tenth amendment restricts government power by saying the fedral government only has rights stated in the constitution and states that states have individual power from the government
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