New Federalism was a conservative political philosophy, championed by President Richard Nixon in the 1970s, that sought to shift power and funding from the federal government back to state and local governments through tools like revenue sharing and block grants.
New Federalism was Richard Nixon's answer to decades of growing federal power. Since the New Deal in the 1930s, Washington had taken on more and more responsibility for social and economic programs, and the Great Society of the 1960s pushed that even further. Nixon and other conservatives argued the federal government had overreached. Their solution was to send power, decisions, and money back down to the states.
In practice, New Federalism meant revenue sharing (the federal government handing tax dollars to states with few strings attached) and block grants (lump sums states could spend on broad goals like community development instead of following detailed federal rules). The bigger idea behind it is called devolution, the transfer of authority from the national government to state and local governments. New Federalism wasn't about shrinking government spending so much as relocating who controlled it.
New Federalism lives in Topic 8.14, Society in Transition (Unit 8: Cold War and Social Change, 1945-1980), and it's a direct example of learning objective APUSH 8.14.A: explaining the causes and effects of continuing policy debates about the role of the federal government over time. The CED is explicit that in the 1960s conservatives sought to limit the role of the federal government, and that public confidence in government's ability to solve social and economic problems declined in the 1970s after economic challenges, scandals, and foreign policy crises. New Federalism is exactly what that backlash looked like as actual policy. It also sets up the conservative resurgence you'll see in Unit 9, so it's a perfect continuity-and-change thread across periods.
Keep studying APUSH Unit 8
Devolution, Block Grants, and Revenue Sharing (Unit 8)
These are the nuts and bolts of New Federalism. Devolution is the general idea of pushing power down to the states, while revenue sharing and block grants are the specific tools Nixon used to do it. If a question asks how New Federalism actually worked, these terms are your answer.
The New Deal (Unit 7)
New Federalism only makes sense as a reaction to the New Deal. FDR's programs in the 1930s built the big, activist federal government that conservatives spent the next forty years pushing back against. The two terms are basically opposite ends of the same policy debate.
The Great Society (Unit 8)
Lyndon Johnson's Great Society was the high-water mark of federal liberalism, and it's the immediate target New Federalism was responding to. Knowing both lets you write a sharp contrast between 1960s liberalism and the 1970s conservative turn.
The Reagan Revolution (Unit 9)
Reagan picked up New Federalism and ran with it in the 1980s, cutting federal programs and championing state control. Nixon's version is the bridge between 1960s conservative critiques and the full conservative resurgence of Period 9.
Federalism debates in the Early Republic (Unit 3)
The fight over federal versus state power didn't start in the 1970s. It goes back to the Constitution, Hamilton versus Jefferson, and the Federalists versus Anti-Federalists. New Federalism is a great endpoint for a long-essay argument about this continuity across all of US history.
New Federalism shows up most often in multiple-choice and short-answer questions about the 1970s conservative reaction to liberalism, usually paired with a Nixon speech, an excerpt criticizing the Great Society, or data on federal spending. You're rarely asked just to define it. Instead, you need to explain it as evidence of the continuing debate over the federal government's role (APUSH 8.14.A). No released FRQ has used the term verbatim, but it's strong evidence for LEQs and DBQs on continuity and change in federal power, the rise of conservatism, or comparisons between the New Deal era and the 1970s-1980s. Drop it with specifics (Nixon, revenue sharing, block grants) and you've got a concrete example most essays lack.
The names sound related, but they point in opposite directions. The New Deal (FDR, 1930s) dramatically expanded federal power to fight the Great Depression, creating new agencies and national programs. New Federalism (Nixon, 1970s) tried to reverse that trend by handing power and funding back to the states. Easy memory hook: the New Deal built up Washington's role, and New Federalism tried to break it back down. On the exam, mixing these up flips your entire argument backward.
New Federalism was Nixon's 1970s philosophy of shifting power and responsibility from the federal government back to state and local governments.
Its main tools were revenue sharing and block grants, which gave states federal money with fewer rules attached.
It was a conservative reaction to the expansion of federal power under the New Deal and the Great Society.
It fits the CED's emphasis on declining public trust in government during the 1970s and growing conservative-liberal clashes over federal power (Topic 8.14, APUSH 8.14.A).
New Federalism bridges Unit 8 and Unit 9, since Reagan extended the same state-power ideas in the 1980s.
It's a go-to example for continuity-and-change essays about debates over the role of the federal government across US history.
New Federalism is the political philosophy, pushed by President Nixon in the 1970s, of transferring power and funding from the federal government back to the states through revenue sharing and block grants. It appears in Topic 8.14, Society in Transition, as part of the 1970s conservative reaction to federal liberalism.
Not really. Nixon's New Federalism moved control of money and programs to the states, but federal spending kept growing and many federal programs survived. It changed who managed government programs more than it eliminated them.
They're opposites. The New Deal (FDR, 1930s) expanded federal power with national programs and agencies, while New Federalism (Nixon, 1970s) tried to push power back to state and local governments. Don't let the similar names trick you on an MCQ.
Devolution is the general concept of transferring power from the national government down to states and localities. New Federalism is the specific Nixon-era (and later Reagan-era) program built around that concept, using tools like block grants and revenue sharing.
Yes. It's grounded in Topic 8.14 and learning objective APUSH 8.14.A, which asks you to explain the causes and effects of ongoing debates about the role of the federal government. It's most useful as evidence in essays about the rise of conservatism or continuity in federal-state power debates.