Created in 2018 and housed within CCS, the Federalism Index Project is a regional hub for the study and promotion of American federalism.

Its aim is to help educators, state leaders, and ordinary citizens better understand and appreciate the significance of American federalism in the overall structure of the United States Constitution.

Federalism can be defined as a political system that combines self-rule with shared rule across different levels of government. The structure of American government, which includes representation, bicameralism (two legislative chambers), separation of powers, and federalism, was vital to the early history of the American republic and it remains so today. In fact, the framers of the U.S. Constitution considered structural features of the Constitution to be so important that these alone were not left to later amendment.

Although federalism is widely regarded as the “key innovation” of the U.S. Constitution, it is in danger of being forgotten. While no one doubts that federalism is a core principle of American democracy, the public's knowledge of it—and other structural components of the U.S. Constitution—is at dangerously low levels.

The Federalism Index Project aims to help reverse this trend by promoting the study of American federalism in higher education, K–12, and in the public sphere.