1. Describe the primary differences in the role of citizens in government, among the federal, confederation, and unitary systems.

In a federal system, citizens play a role in both the national government and the government of their respective states. They elect representatives to both levels of government and may participate in policymaking through various channels. In a confederation, citizens primarily interact with their state or regional government, as power is decentralized with little authority held by a central government. In a unitary system, citizens interact solely with the national government, as power is concentrated at the central level, and regional governments, if they exist, have limited authority.

2.Briefly explain how you understand the system of division of power.

The division of power refers to the distribution of authority between different levels of government. In federal systems, power is divided between a central government and regional governments, with each level having distinct areas of jurisdiction. This division aims to balance centralized authority with regional autonomy, fostering cooperation while preserving local control. Checks and balances mechanisms ensure that no single level of government becomes too dominant.

3.How does the federal government shape the actions of state and local governments? Write your answer based on doing a bit of research on how the federal government has influenced the actions of NY state and local governments, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government has influenced the actions of state and local governments in New York through various means. This includes providing guidance and resources such as funding, medical supplies, and expertise to combat the pandemic. Additionally, federal mandates, recommendations, and emergency declarations have shaped state and local responses to the crisis, influencing policies related to public health measures, economic relief, and vaccination distribution. Federal regulations and guidelines have also impacted decision-making at the state and local levels, shaping strategies for containing the spread of the virus and mitigating its impact on communities.

1. Describe the primary differences in the role of citizens in government, among the federal, confederation, and unitary systems.

• The different in the role of citizens in government is that in the federal systems, its citizens have rights and their own responsibilities in every layer of government. However, power is split between the central government as well as the regional authorities, and each have their own leaderships. The confederation systems, the people are loyal and will align with their state or region, but the decision-making is usually decentralized. The citizens of the unitary systems are engaged with the central government and the entities on the regional level receive their authority from it, with limited autonomy.

2. Briefly explain how you understand the system of division of power.

• The system of division of power is how authority is split up between the three branches (executive, legislative, and judicial). This division is set in place to avoid one entity from having too much power and dominating or potentially abusing its power. The point is for there to be checks and balances so all entities are held accountable.

3. How does the federal government shape the actions of state and local governments? Write your answer based on doing a bit of research on how the federal government has influenced the actions of NY state and local governments, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• During the pandemic, New York’s state and local governments were influenced by the federal government through the CDC’s recommendations on how to “stay safe” and other agencies like it, there were policies put in place on traveling and getting vaccinated, and the biggest influence was funding and how and where it was being distributed.

1. The primary differences in the role of citizens in government among the federal, confederation, and unitary systems are that in a federal system the citizens vote on who will represent them in the parliament or US congress then they make the decisions for the people, then for a confederation system the people hold more power because the central authority of the government has limited power because most of the decisions are made by the people, and finally in the unitary system of government the cental government has most of the power while the citizens have very little say in what happens.
2. From my understanding the system of division of power was created so no one person gets all the power in decision making of laws. The three branches are the Legislative branch which is responsible for making laws, then we have the executive branch which is the president, and his job is ” executing enforcing, and administering the laws and government.”(Reading 7.1), and finally we have the judicial branch ” their job is to interoperate and apply US laws through cases brought before them.”(Reading 7.1) they also have the say to rule laws unconstitutional.
3. During the COVID-19 pandemic the federal government played a big role in influencing how the state and local government were to react and deal with the crisis at hand. The federal government helped with providing financial help to states and local governments this included funding for economic relief, healthcare, and COVID testing. The federal government also helped with issuing guidelines such as travel restrictions, social distancing, and making rules to help make workplaces safer in order to help stop the spread.

1. Describe the primary differences in the role of citizens in government, among the federal, confederation, and unitary systems.
In a unitary system, the subnational government depends on the national government which has a high concentration of authority. In a Confederation, it is reversed, where the authority is concentrated in the subnational government and the national government’s ability to act is dependent on their consent. In a federal system, however, the National and Subnational governments are dependent on the people for their authority, which is evenly divided between the two governments. The people vote in representatives for both the national and subnational governments and their representatives are meant to act in the best interests of the people.

2. Briefly explain how you understand the system of division of power.
As I understand it, the division of power is accomplished by splitting the government into three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial, on both the national and subnational levels. Within the three branches, there are checks and balances to make sure that one branch does not have more power than another, such as the President being able to veto legislation or the Supreme Court being able to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional. Additionally, there are checks and balances between the national and state levels to make sure that the national government is restricted in its capability to act on behalf of the people.

3. How does the federal government shape the actions of state and local governments? Write your answer based on doing a bit of research on how the federal government has influenced the actions of NY state and local governments, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Federal government shapes the actions of state and local governments by handling larger, overarching aspects of the country while leaving the smaller, individual details for the state and local governments to handle. For example, the federal government may give suggestions based on findings of government agencies, but will ultimately leave it to the state and local governments to determine what is best for public health, safety, and welfare.
In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government closely monitored the cases and funded agencies to better research the virus, potential safeguards, and treatment options. They passed several bills meant to help stimulate the economy and help those who may have lost work due to the pandemic and various shutdowns throughout the country. The federal government made suggestions based on these findings but did not at any point mandate quarantines, vaccines, restrictions, or curfews, instead leaving that up to each individual state to determine what was best for their citizens.
In the case of NY state, Governor Cuomo declared a state of emergency in early March 2020, and shortly thereafter had the state begin to produce its own brand of hand sanitizer to help with price gouging and lack of supply. The Governor began to set social distancing rules into effect, such as limiting social gathering sizes and closing down CUNY and SUNY campuses, and by March 15th, shutting down NYC schools. The Governor signed an executive order mandating the closure of schools for two weeks to pivot to remote instruction, and within four days declared a state-wide stay-at-home order. When the state ultimately was showing signs of being able to re-open, NY state government ultimately determined when and how that would occur, and made it’s own decisions regarding vaccine requirements. Ultimately, these were measures that were supported by the federal government but were decided upon and executed by NY state’s government itself.

1. In the Federal system, the authority is divided between states and the national government. The federal system is the one followed by our nation, where citizens vote for their leaders, are intended to participate in a jury, etc. Citizens vote for their senators, their presidents according to this type of system. 

In a Confederation system citizens have most power because this type of system the authority is under the States and the National Government. The primary objective of citizens within this type of system is the right to vote for their representatives.

In a Unitary system, citizens are in most of the cases not involved in decisions, that means that the central government is in charge of the decisions that are made. An unitary type of system the national government is the authority, followed by the states. 

2. I think that the division of power is a way that in my opinion helps to organize a nation’s structure. It is a form to divide the variations of branches and institutions that a country is conformed by. In our case, the United State’s division of power is divided in 3 branches as it was explained in the video for this module. We have the Legislative power, the Executive power, and the Judicial power. I believe that this organization helps our country to divide by institutions the different matters of our government. 

3. The federal government often shapes the actions of the state and the local government in certain ways. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government shaped the actions of both local and state by taking grants to help citizens to go through the confinement. In 2020 the Bureau of the Fiscal Service and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sent out three rounds of direct checks payments to Americans to get through the pandemic. According to the U.S Department of treasury, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 “provided Economic Impact Payments of up to $1,400 for eligible individuals or $2,800 for married couples filing jointly, plus $1,400 for each qualifying dependent, including adult dependents”. This is a perfect example of how the federal government influenced actions not only of the NY but all across our nation during the COVID-19/

1. The primary difference in the role of citizens in the federal government is that they have authority when it comes to the central and state government. They help elect the president and congress, which plays a part in handling national matters. The urinary system makes decision within the central government without citizens as well as the confederation makes decisions with the state government also without the citizens.

2. I understand that the division of power is something that separates the authority between governments which make them co depend on each other in a way. In order to make a decision they need each other to help make and finalize the laws. Its not one group that makes the decisions.

3. The federal government helped shaped the actions of state and local governments during covid 19 in Ny state by providing us with 335 billion in funds to different agencies in response to the pandemic, they helped protect health workers, essential health services, gave out free testers and provided treatments. They also helped finance a broad range of services including education, social services, public safety and infrastructure.

1. The difference in the role of citizens in government varies among their systems. The federal system, like the US, is set up to where both the big central state government and the smaller state government both maintain some sort of power. In this system, they also have taxes and rules come from both levels. The confederation system is set up to where each country has its own power, but shares some of it with its other surrounding countries. Citizens tend to follow their own countries’ rules, not so much the big confederation. Lastly, the unitary system is in places like Japan, where they have one big central government in charge of everything. Citizens vote for national leaders who make the rules and taxes they follow. 
2. Division of power would mean to divide the power (whoever makes the rules and decisions) in a government. Having power being spread out into different levels, assures balance and the low risk of one class overpowering another. 
3. During the COVID 19 pandemic, there was some assistance given to the citizens by the NY state and local governments. They provided stimulus checks, set strict health guideline measures all around the city, and had strict enforcement on the vaccine. The world really did change overnight, from everyone wearing masks and cautiously standing 6 feet apart to maintain social distancing.

1. Describe the primary differences in the role of citizens in government, among the federal, confederation, and unitary systems. In federalism, the term federal government refers to the government at national level, while the terms states means government at a subnational level. Power is balanced through two levels of government and they each posses the capacity to act directly on behalf of the people with authority. In confederation, authority is decentralized. This means the ability to act depends on the consent of the subnational government. Finally, unitary systems is in contrast to federalism. This system creates a subnational government where significant authority is concentrated. The primary differences in the roles of citizens lies in the distribution of power and authority between the central government and lower-level entities.
2. Briefly explain how you understand the system of division of power. The system of division of power is designed to separate the powers of the three branches, legislative, executive, and judicial. The constitution to further protect citizens, set up a system of checks and balances. “Basically, each branch of government has a certain number of checks it can use to ensure the other branches do not become too powerful. For example, the president can veto legislation, the Supreme Court can declare acts of Congress unconstitutional, and the Senate must approve treaties and presidential appointments.” stated by the article “Overview of United States Government and Politics” by Martin Kelly.
3. How does the federal government shape the actions of state and local governments? Write your answer based on doing a bit of research on how the federal government has influenced the actions of NY state and local governments, during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the Covid-19 pandemic, some ways the federal government influenced the actions of NY state and local governments was through policy guidelines and financial assistance. The federal government provided state governments with protocols for testing of the virus, staying up to date with vaccinations, and even provided guidelines on practicing good hygiene; which resulted in state governments to enforce these protocols through agencies such as the CDC, “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention”. The federal government also gave fundings to states and local governments, including New York, to provide relief to individuals or businesses and bolster healthcare systems.

1. Describe the primary differences in the role of citizens in government, among the federal, confederation, and unitary systems. 

In the confederation system, citizens have the most power because this system is comprised of local governments. In the unitary system, citizens are not involved and leave all the power and choice up to their central governments. In a federal system, the separation of powers must compromise between the democratic aspirations of the citizens and the ruling class. 

2. Briefly explain how you understand the system of division of power. 

The system of division of power is split into three branches: The legislative branch, the Judicial branch, and the Executive branch. The Legislative branch consists of Congress, two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives, responsible for making federal law. The Executive branch is the President of the United States, who executes, enforces, and administers the laws and government. The Judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court and federal courts that interpret and apply US laws through cases brought before them; they can also rule laws unconstitutional.  

3. How does the federal government shape the actions of state and local governments? Write your answer based on doing a bit of research on how the federal government has influenced the actions of NY state and local governments, during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The federal government shapes the actions of the state and local governments through the distribution of grants, mandates, incentives, and aid. An example of the federal government influencing the actions of NY state and local governments during the COVID-19 pandemic is when they imposed federal mandates to implement programs like the Coronavirus Relief Fund; these mandates were either fully or partially funded by the federal government.