Terms : Hide Images
| 7290820363 | Block grants | Federal programs that provide funds to state and local governments for general functional areas, such as criminal justice or mental health programs. | 0 | |
| 7290820364 | Categorical grants | Federal grants to states or local governments that are for specific programs or projects. | 1 | |
| 7290820365 | Commerce clause | The section of the Constitution in which Congress is given the power to regulate trade among the states and with foreign countries. | 2 | |
| 7290820366 | Concurrent powers | Powers held jointly by the national and state governments. | 3 | |
| 7290820367 | Confederal system | A system consisting of a league of independent states, each having essentially sovereign powers. The central government created by such a league has only limited powers over the states. | 4 | |
| 7290820368 | Cooperative federalism | The theory that the states and the national government should cooperate in solving problems. | 5 | |
| 7290820369 | Devolution | The transfer of powers from a national or central government to a state or local government. | 6 | |
| 7290820370 | Dual federalism | A system in which the states and the national government each remains supreme within its own sphere. The doctrine looks on nation and state as coequal sovereign powers. Neither the state government nor the national government should interfere in the other's sphere. | 7 | |
| 7290820371 | Elastic clause, or necessary and proper clause | The clause in Article I, Section 8, that grants Congress the power to do whatever is necessary to execute its specifically delegated powers. | 8 | |
| 7290820372 | Extradite | To surrender an accused or convicted criminal to the authorities of the state from which he or she has fled; to return a fugitive criminal to the jurisdiction of the accusing state. | 9 | |
| 7290820373 | Federalism | A system of government in which power is divided by a written constitution between a central government and regional or subdivisional governments. Each level must have some domain in which its policies are dominant and some genuine constitutional guarantee of its authority. | 10 | |
| 7290820374 | Federal mandate | Requirements in federal legislation that force states and municipalities to comply with certain rules. | 11 | |
| 7290820375 | Full faith and credit clause | This section of the Constitution requires states to recognize one another's laws and court decisions. It ensures that rights established under deeds, wills, contracts, and other civil matters in one state will be honored by other states. | 12 | |
| 7290820376 | Horizontal control | A check against the expansion of government power that relies on checks and balances between branches of government on the same level. | 13 | |
| 7290820377 | Interstate compact | An agreement between two or more states. Agreements on minor matters are made without congressional consent, but any compact that tends to increase the power of the contracting states relative to other states or relative to the national government generally requires the consent of Congress. Such compacts serve as a means by which states can solve regional problems. | 14 | |
| 7290820378 | New judicial federalism | The increased reliance of state courts of last resort on state constitutions rather than on the federal Constitution for the protection of individual rights. | 15 | |
| 7290820379 | Police power | The authority to legislate for the protection of the health, morals, safety, and welfare of the people. In the United States, most police power is reserved to the states. | 16 | |
| 7290820380 | Privileges and immunities | Special rights and exceptions provided by law. States may not discriminate against one another's citizens. | 17 | |
| 7290820381 | Supremacy clause | The constitutional provision that makes the Constitution and federal laws superior to all conflicting state and local laws. | 18 | |
| 7290820382 | Unitary system | A centralized governmental system in which local or subdivisional governments exercise only those powers given to them by the central government. | 19 | |
| 7290820383 | Vertical control | A structural check against the accumulation of too much power in any one level of government (national or state). | 20 |
