s not a matter that could be settled by the views of any one generation. Rather, he stated, changes in the social fabric necessitated a rethinking of the issue from time to time:
Changes in the social and economic condition of society, in the electorate's perception of issues needing to be addressed by government, and in the prevailing political values, Wilson declared, require each successive generation to treat federal-state relationships as "a new question," subject to full and searching reappraisal (Scheiber 278).
A definition of federalism indicates the need for some decision as to the balance of power between the states and the federal government:
[Federalism is] a system of constitutional arrangements among sovereign political units to carry out clearly defined policies best dealt with collectively by a "federation" (e.g., foreign policy, defense, monetary policies, custom regulations, etc.) while at the same time guaranteeing the political autonomy of these self-governing units concerning all other matters (Bishay 77).
The American system is a republic, and a republic in strictest terms is a form of government in which the people exercise their power through elected representatives, while democracy is a form of government in which the people exercise their power directly or through elected representatives. The men who gathered in Philadelphia to consider the formatio
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