Constitution Principle
Federalism
The Congress shall have Power . . . To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.
—Article I, Section 8, Clause 3
This excerpt from the Constitution gives the federal government the power to regulate trade and to tax foreign trade.
Federalism divides the power between the central government and the local and state governments.
Thomas Hobbes was a philosopher during the Enlightenment period. He wrote how a king should rule all power in an ideal government.
The framers of the Constitution took in Hobbes ideas by giving the power to the central government, but unlike Hobbes, they did not give the government absolute power.