In the United States, the Constitution grants certain powers to both the U. S. government and the state governments. The Founding Fathers wanted more power for the individual states and less for the federal government, a practice that endured until World War II. That "layer cake" method of dual federalism was replaced when state and national governments entered a more cooperative "marble cake" approach called cooperative federalism
Since then, a new federalism initiated by presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan has returned some powers back to states through federal grants.