When it comes to identifying the federal government's powers, we know where to look, but it can sometimes be tricky. Article I of the Constitution provides a list specifying the powers of each branch of government. The debate is, and always has been, how to interpret the meaning of these provisions and how to interpret it broadly or narrowly. Although the Constitution provides a specific list of limitations on state powers along with a list of certain rights, it provides no written list of state powers or even a general statement about their scope. In America, states existed before and struggled to create a national government. When lawmakers proposed replacing the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution, they created a new form of government known as federalism. Federalism in the United States is the evolving relationship between U.S. state governments and the U.S. federal government. This change was considered a hybrid form of government, a mix of unitary government and confederal government. A unitary government did not have a system of states with indivisible borders; instead power flowed directly from the national government to the people. On the other hand, the confederal government required the national government to operate through the states, which had primacy in the system. Federalism is one of the most important and innovative concepts in the United States Constitution, as well as one of the most persistent and controversial concepts. problems in the history of the United States. The framers of the United States Constitution created a system that divided power between the national government and the states, as well as allowing governments to act directly on the people. The j...... half of the document......3:28, November 19, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Coleman_v._Miller&oldid=580100972Hollingsworth v. Virginia. (2013, October 4). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 9.41pm, November 18, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hollingsworth_v._Virginia&oldid=575768628Printz v. United States. (2013, October 20). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved at 07:43, November 19, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Printz_v._United_States&oldid=577981843"UNITED STATES v. DARBY," The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, accessed November 19, 2013, http://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1949/1940/1940_82.Vile, J.R. (2010). Essential Supreme Court Decisions: Summary of Major Cases in U.S. Constitutional Law. (15th ed., pp. 14-15). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.