1.9 Advantages of Federalism

federalism provides citizens multiple ways to influence policy-at federal, state, and local levels. And like Madison wanted, federal policymaking is at times constrained by the sharing of power between the three branches of government through separation of powers and checks and balances.
Federalism allows for the federal government to make unified policies when necessary nationwide. But states can also make their own policies in the absence of a national consensus and can experiment with new policies, serving as laboratories of democracy where we can observe what policies work and don’t work in other states and take the best one and drop the worst ones.
It also allows states to make policies that fit the preferences of their residents and to focus on issues that are relevant to their specific needs.