Layer cake federalism is the relationship between the central government

Central government

A central government also known as a national government, union government and in federal states, the federal government, is the government at the level of the nation-state. The structure of central governments varies from institution to institution...

 of a nation and that of its states, where the powers and policy assignments of the government hierarchy

Hierarchy

A hierarchy is an arrangement of items in which the items are represented as being "above," "below," or "at the same level as" one another...

 ("layers" of government) are clearly spelled out and distinct from one another. This form of federalism is also called Dual Federalism.

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

Morton Grodzins

Morton M. Grodzins was a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, as well as a dean of the school and an editor at Chicago University Press. He is known for coining the term "tipping point" in studies of white flight, such as The Metropolitan Area as a Racial Problem...

. In the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, this type of federalism

Federalism

Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...

 developed after the Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 in the 1870s, and ran on until the New Deal

New Deal

The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...

era of the 1930s.