When you say "states rights vs. federalism," I think you mean federalism vs. centralism. In a federal arrangement, the component parts have a lot of power that the "federal" government can't take away from them. In a centralist arrangement, all power flows from the center.
The United States government is technically federalist. The federal government can't tell the states to raise their drinking age to 21 or lower their speed limits to 55. However, it can offer to give them money if they do and refuse to give them money if they don't. So traditionally, they cave. For most practical purposes, it's now a centralist government.
(Thus one of the themes of the Ron Paul campaign, that the present federal government was not behaving "constitutionally"--meaning as the founders envisioned. That is certainly true as a matter of history, but since just about everyone, right or left, wants a strong central government--though with their people in control--it was hardly a winning argument.)
State governments, on the other hand, are explicitly centralist. Cities and towns only have the powers granted them by the state legislature. Local governments can only pass regulations about certain things, only tax in certain ways, only run their elections in certain ways, etc. In many places, the state legislature could abolish all counties, cities, towns, whatever if it wanted to.
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The United States government is technically federalist. The federal government can't tell the states to raise their drinking age to 21 or lower their speed limits to 55. However, it can offer to give them money if they do and refuse to give them money if they don't. So traditionally, they cave. For most practical purposes, it's now a centralist government.
(Thus one of the themes of the Ron Paul campaign, that the present federal government was not behaving "constitutionally"--meaning as the founders envisioned. That is certainly true as a matter of history, but since just about everyone, right or left, wants a strong central government--though with their people in control--it was hardly a winning argument.)
State governments, on the other hand, are explicitly centralist. Cities and towns only have the powers granted them by the state legislature. Local governments can only pass regulations about certain things, only tax in certain ways, only run their elections in certain ways, etc. In many places, the state legislature could abolish all counties, cities, towns, whatever if it wanted to.