Before discussing the federalist structure of government and how it affects the policy-making system, I will first discuss what federalism means. Reading the course textbook, federalism was defined as “a system of government in which power is shared between the central government…and other governments” (Birkland, 2011, p. 61). This means that one government agency has more power than another. This structure which allows for a sharing of powers between the federal and state governments is used by the American Constitution. This idea of ​​federalism is directly discussed in the Tenth Amendment, known as the Reserved Powers Clause and which states: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited thereby to the States, are reserved respectively for the States. or to the people” (Bill of Rights, nd). The separation of powers between the three branches of government is provided for in the Constitution and this separation helps prevent the government “from acting without carefully considering the costs and benefits of new policies” (Birkland, 2011, p. 61). the judicial, legislative and executive branches are the three branches of government that are regulated by the system based on the ideas presented in federalism in that no branch has the same or more power than the other, and in the constitution, this system is known as checks and balances. The main impact of the federalist structure on the federalist structure is that it “prevents rapid and radical political change” (Birkland, 2011, p. 61) by intentionally slowing the process. Evidence of the impact of the federalist system is something that can be clearly seen when we look at how our country has struggled to make policy changes that