Citizens vote for who they want their representatives to be on the federal degree. On the confederation degree citizens have more power because the confederation is made up of local governments. The unitary systems of the citizens just leave everything up to the government.
I understand the division of power by who makes the law is the legislative branch, the people who enforce the law are the executive branch, and the judicial branch interprets the law.
The federal government shapes the actions and local government by mandating things or rules. Like during Covid-19 pandemic they mandated we wear masks outside, stay 6 feet apart to prevent the spread. As well as we all went into quarantine they didn’t want people outside. That also goes for the covid vaccine they said will prevent catching it. They made it where they would give 100 dollars if you got the vaccine. So it persuaded people to get it.