Wrong. "Federalism" is a political science term that means there's a supremacy clause for the top level governing body over a territory that has one or more smaller governing bodies in that same territory. The smaller bodies "govern" polities and the top-level that includes all of the polities is the federation. The author means "Constitutional [whatever]" that has inalienable rights/Lockean rights constitutionalized in a constitution that is enforced over all other governing bodies in that territory using a supremacy clause. Constitutional Governance can come in multiple forms. The form the US has is a Constitutional Republic. The full form of government the US has is known as a Democratic Federalist Constitutional Republic. Why did the Founding Fathers come up with all this? John Locke came up with quite a bit of thoughts regarding natural rights. The natural rights of man are to be protected by the government. Such as free life, liberty, and property. The Founding Fathers abhorred direct democracy because of the horrors of Majoritarianism. However, they also feared the horrors of Monarchies and Dictatorships (Minoritarianism). So there are certain rights that "shall not be infringed" to protect us from the minorities interests (like the oligarchy) and majority mob rule.