| Term | Definition |
|---|
| block grant | The intergovernmental transfer of money that has fewer conditions of aid than a categorical grant and is used for broadly defined policy areas; it is distributed based on complicated formulas. |
| block grant | The intergovernmental transfer of money that has fewer conditions of aid than a categorical grant and is used for broadly defined policy areas; it is distributed based on complicated formulas. |
| categorical formula grant | The inter governmental transfer of money for a specified program area for which the amount of money a government is eligible to receive is based on a legislated formula. |
| categorical project grant | The inter governmental transfer of money for a specified program area for which recipients compete by proposing specific projects they want to implement. |
| centralized federalism | The relationship between the national and state governments whereby the national government imposes its policy preferences on state governments. |
| concurrent powers | The basic governing functions of all sovereign governments; in the United States they are held by the national, state, and local governments and include the authority to tax, to make policy, to implement policy, and the power of eminent domain. |
| confederal system | A structure of government in which several independent sovereign governments agree to cooperate on specified governmental matters while retaining sovereignty over all other governmental matters within their jurisdictions. |
| conflicted federalism | The current status of national-state relations that has elements of dual and cooperative federalism, with an overall centralizing tendency at the same time that elements of policy are devolved. |
| cooperative federalism | The relationship between the national and state governments whereby the two levels of government work together to address domestic matters reserved to the states, driven by the policy priorities of the states. |
| devolution | The process whereby the national government returns policy responsibilities to state and/or local governments. |
| dual federalism | The relationship between the national and state governments, dominant between 1789 and 1932, whereby the two levels of government functioned independently of each other to address their distinct constitutional responsibilities. |
| dual sovereignty | The existence of two governments, each with sovereignty over different matters at the same time; neither level is sovereign over the other. |
| eminent domain | The authority of government to compel a property owner to sell private property to a government to further the public good. |
| enumerated powers | The powers of the national government that are listed in the Constitution. |
| extradition | The return of a person accused of a crime to the state in which the crime was committed upon the request of that state's governor. |
| federal system | A governmental structure with two levels of government and in which each level has sovereignty over different governmental functions and policy matters. |
| full faith and credit clause | The constitutional clause that requires states to comply with and uphold the public acts, records, and judicial decisions of other states. |
| grants-in-aid (intergovernmental transfers) | The transfer of money from one government to another government (or from a government to a nonprofit organization, for-profit organization, or individual) that does not need to be paid back. |
| horizontal federalism | The state-to-state relationships created by the U.S. Constitution. |
| implied powers | The powers of the national government that are not enumerated in the Constitution but that Congress claims are necessary and proper for the national government to fulfill its enumerated powers in accordance with the necessary and proper clause of the Constitution. |
| intergovernmental lobbying | Efforts by groups representing state and local governments to influence national domestic policy. |
| intergovernmental relations (IGR) | The collaborative efforts of two or more levels of government working to serve the public. |
| interstate compacts | Agreements between states that Congress has the authority to review and reject. |
| mandates | Clauses in legislation that direct state and local governments to comply with national legislation and national standards. |
| McCullogh v. Maryland | The 1819 case that established that the necessary and proper clause justifies broad understandings of enumerated powers. |
| necessary and proper clause (elastic clause) | A clause in Article I, section 8, of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to do whatever it deems necessary and constitutional to meet its enumerated obligations; the basis for the implied powers. |
| new judicial federalism | The practice whereby state judges base decisions regarding civil rights and liberties on their state's constitution, rather than the U.S. Constitution, when their state's constitution guarantees more than minimum rights. |
| partial preemption | The authority of the national government to establish minimum regulatory standards that provide state and local governments the flexibility either to enforce the national standards or to establish their own more stringent standards, which they must enforce. |
| police powers | The states' reserved powers to protect the health, safety, lives, and properties of residents in a state. |
| preemption | The constitutionally based principle that allows a national law to supersede state or local laws. |
| privileges and immunities clause | The Constitution's requirement that a state extend to other states' citizens the privileges and immunities it provides for its citizens. |
| reserved powers | The matters referred to in the Tenth Amendment over which states retain sovereignty. |
| sovereignty | Having ultimate authority to govern, with no legal superior. |
| supremacy clause | The paragraph in Article VI that makes the Constitution, and the treaties and laws created in compliance with it, the supreme law of the land. |
| supreme law of the land | The U.S. Constitution's description of its own authority, meaning that all laws made by governments within the United States must be in compliance with the Constitution. |
| unitary system | A governmental structure in which one central government has sovereignty, although it may create regional governments to which it delegates responsibilities. |
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