Contemporary American Federalism traces the development of the federal system within the United States from 1789 to the present. In contrast to earlier works on American federalism, this book examines not only national-state relations, but also interstate relations and state-local relations, and does so while introducing and explaining how theories of federalism may be utilized to understand the system at its origins and as it operates today. Individual chapters explore the establishment of the federal system, the United States Constitution, congressional preemption of state regulatory authority, federalism and the judiciary, intergovernmental fiscal relations, interstate relations, state-local relations, and, finally, the growth of power centralization within the federal system.