Federal-State Medicaid Program (Coursework Sample)

The national government is often referred to as the federal government. That leads to some issues when we discuss federalism – because federalism is not referring to the national government alone. Federalism is the relationship between the national and state/local governments. When we talk about federal programs, most of the time we are really talking about a national government policy that is administered at the state level. This is what federalism is: the national government passes a law that establishes a program and then (most of the time) provides funding to the states to carry out that program. I say most of the time, because there are different forms of federalism, as described in your textbook.
A great example of federalism that your book discusses is voting rights. There are national level laws that require the states to allow access to voting to protecting groups within our population (think about African-Americans historically being denied the right to vote in the United States). Even though states are in charge of voting, the states must abide by the national voting laws. In return for following the national voting laws, the national government will provide money to the states to help fund the cost of national elections (congressional and/or presidential). However, if the states do not abide by the national voting laws, the national government can force the states to follow the law. Sometimes, the states do not agree with parts of the national law and might try to fight against it in the court system, as explained in You Decide: Voices of Texas, Voting and Redistricting Rights (Champagne, Harpham, and Casellas 103).
Information to help you answer this question will be found in Chapter 3 of your textbook