Layer cake federalism

Layer cake federalism is the relationship between the central government of a nation and that of its states, where the powers and policy assignments of the government hierarchy ("layers" of government) are clearly spelled out and distinct from one another.

In other words, the national government deals with the issues that are national and the states deals with the state and local issues. Ideally, there will be no interference between the two arenas.

This term was coined by political scientist, Morton Grodzins. In the United States, this type of federalism developed after the Civil War in the 1870s, and ran on until the New Deal era of the 1930s.