1. The distinction between the two points of view is that authority is divided between the states and the federal government; nevertheless, individuals have the right to vote for who they choose to represent them in government. Decisions will be made via the state since Confederate residents have the most clout in the state. The federal government is made up of combined state and national government systems.

2-The federal system and separation of powers were the two major political ideas that inspired the formation of the United States. At the time, it was considered that concentrating too much power in the hands of a few people or a single institution would jeopardize the people’s freedom. As a result, the legislative, judicial, and executive branches are separate but equal entities that work together to keep the system balanced. As a counterbalance to the federal government, individual states also contribute to the distribution of power.

3- The federal government has influenced the actions of New York state and local governments by providing citizens with stimulus checks, unemployment compensation, and other types of support and resources to aid in the recovery of the American economy. Furthermore, the federal government has responded to the virus by mandating masks and encouraging individuals to get Covid 19 vaccines.

1. the primary differences in the role of citizens in government, among the federal, confederation, and unitary systems : the federal government system divides power between the state and government which allows the people to vote, while the confederation each country has its own independent sovereignty because confederation is not a sovereign country therefore there is no unified constitution

2. Division of power system divides the powers between the three branches: executive, legislative and judicial.

3. The government to me didn’t seem to be taken the outbreak as serious as they should have at the beginning. They were unprepared for the outcome I guess it is to be expected since the virus took everyone by surprise. But The federal , NY state and local governments step up by providing citizens with stimulus checks, unemployment, and other support and resources to restore economy. Ensured safety health by requiring citizens to wear masks, encouraged them to get tested and vaccinated. They provided people to test I public schools, I was tested every week as I work at a public school

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

The difference among these roles is the fact that power was separated between the states and the government, however citizens can choose who they want as their government officials by voting. Confederation citizens hold the most authority for the state, so decisions will be admitted through the state. Federal citizens are made up of conjoined systems of both states and the national government. 

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

The separation of the three powers, in other words, the three branches of government represent the essential division of the government, along with separating each power. Additionally, this was created to maintain the balance of the individual power, along with preventing abusing that power. The three branches of government are legislative, executive and judicial.

Legislative – Only council members are allowed to to introduce legislation, and in addition to that, they are a part of the lawmaking effects that goes towards American society. 

Executive – This power is invested towards the President of the United States, who is in charge of executing the country’s rules and regulations, including command and overseer over the U.S. Military, fulfilling his position as a leader of america. 

Judicial – Federal courts, appointed judges that carry out the laws provided by the legislative branch. 

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 has influenced the actions of NY state and local governments by providing citizens with stimulus checks, unemployment, along with other support and resources to restore the american economy. Ensured safety health mechanisms such as requiring citizens to wear masks, encouraged them to get covid testing and vaccinated. 

1. Citizens can participate in the government in a number of ways, including federal, confederational, and unitary systems.In a federated system, citizens can vote for representatives and express their thoughts. Citizens in the Confederacy would have more authority because the system is mostly reliant on state governments. Citizens in a unitary system would trust everything to the central authority.

2. Power division is a way of dividing people into groups depending on their social status and it is divided into three main branches, legislative, executive, and judicial. To manage their government, branches unite, and each department has its own authority and balance of powers also known as check and balances.

3. Grants, incentives, and supports from the federal government influence the behavior of state and local governments. The federal government developed a bill to stimulate the economy and enhance public health during the Covid-19 pandemic. The government was able to pass a legislation that uses the funds by targeting certain populations with public health policy and economic responses.

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

According to the reading 7.2, Federal system consists of two levels of the government including national and subnational and citizens vote and elect representatives from both levels. While in the unitary system the central government control the situation and the subnational is in dependence for it which means citizens are not involved and they left the torch for the central government. Lastly the confederation is characterized by the central government’s dependance for subnational. In other words, the confederation relies on the local government whereby citizen have more power.  

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

On my understanding, the system of division of power which is also called separation of power is a system adopted by US constitution in a goal of strengthening the government power as well as protecting individual’s freedom. It consists of three branches which work based on different responsibilities and it function under the checks and balances system whish mean each branch has its power and no one should be powerful than the other. Those three branches are:

1. The legislative branch: it represents the U.S congress which consist of the senators (100) and house of representative.  
2. The executive branch: the leaders of this branch the president and vice president.
3. The judicial branch:  it consists of all courts in the society from the federal court to supreme court.      
4. 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.

3. Federal, states and local government work in cooperation to serve the public. Federal government provide grants and financial fund and the states and local government ensure the great quality of life for citizen by managing those grants and distribute it for different infrastructures in the state such as education, healthcare, provide water, security and so on. For instance, during the COVID 19 federal government provide the states with fund and supply to batter managing the crisis. New York city is considered the epicenter of the pandemic which create a great short of supply and fund to manage the situation leading Governor Andrew to call on Congress to provide $59 billion to address catastrophic budget shortfalls that impact the jobs and livelihoods of thousands of workers in the state.  

1.The federal government splits power between independent state and central government, both have power which they get from the constitution, given power by the citizens to elect those in office.

Confederal government- power rest within each state, dependable on local government.

Unitary government-  power is in central government, where it can be divided into states

2. For all the power not to be given to just one group of individuals our country has set 3 different branches to each oversee different actions. The legislative, executive and judicial branch each have the ability to check each other on different aspects and decisions being made.

3.The federal government is able to give grants to states, grants can vary on what they are for and the amount or when they can be used. For this reason during COVID-19 pandemic the local and state government were granted $2.6 billion in federal resources and $100 million of state funding. These grants are set for when drastic things happen, such as the pandemic or any natural disaster phenomenon’s.

Question 1

The Federal System: There are two levels of government established within a federal system, and both are elected and promoted by the people. Therefore the role of citizens in government is to vote for representatives.

Confederation system: This system of government levels of authority is decentralized, where states are sovereign and more powerful than the national government. Its citizens have more power because this system pretty much relies on its local governments.

Unitary system: This system of government makes subnational governments dependent on national government with most of its power concentrated. Citizens practically leave everything to the central government.

Question 2

The division of power is a system where power is separated among the executive, legislative (Congress) and judicial branches of the federal system of government. Each distinct branch has the ability to influence the nation’s agenda and affect decisions. This system ensures that there are checks and balances in which power is divided making certain no one branch become predominant.

Legislative supremacy speaks of the power of the national government in Article I of the Constitution in regards to Congress. Whereas the Executive and Presidential government compete constantly for control on the national government especially during party divide where one party holds the white house and the other the senate of both houses.  The separation of powers system of checks and balances relies on the goal-seeking behavior of politicians acting within the various institutions of the national government.

The Judicial branch (the Supreme Court) serve as a reference of the federal balance of power by asserting  “judicial review” and mediates disputes between the President (Executive branch) and Legislative (Congress) on separation of  power.

Question 3

Prior to the pandemic and during the time of pandemic former president Donald Trump strategy was to with held funding where necessary to cause states to compile with established federal laws or policies. This prompt many court cases throughout the judicial branch. For instance funding was with held from states with “Sanctuary Cities” stating it violates federal immigration laws. 

Federal government has the ability to influence states through the distribution of grants, incentives, and aid. Federal grants are administered to states or localities for many different purposes, and funs are distributed by the state or localities as it deems fit. In 1984 the National Minimum Drinking Act was passed, stipulating that states must have a minimum drinking age of 21 in order to receive full federal highway funding.

The coronavirus pandemic compels the federal, state, and local governments to approach the crises with a comprehensive response. The federal government enacted laws to stimulate the economy and foster a vigorous public health response, stockpiling the necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) needed across the nation. During the period of the pandemic the federal government procured ventilators and distributed statewide base on the areas most impacted by the pandemic. New York State was one such state, and considered the epicenter of the pandemic, the governor Andrew Cuomo struggled to obtain additional ventilators.  

Cuomo on March 24,2020 said that “the state had an urgent need for more ventilators to deal with an anticipated peak in demand in two weeks for patients needing help to breathe.” The state will need at least 30,000 ventilators, he said, and it so far had obtained 7,000. “There is no other way for us to get these ventilators,” Cuomo said. “We’ve tried everything else. The only way we can obtain these ventilators is from the federal government. Period.”  The failure to make the medical machines available in an urgent manner resulted in unfavorable patient care.

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

Among the federal,confederation, and unitary systems, the primary differences in the role of citizens are in government under federal, like America is a federal government which divides power between central government and state government. Since the districts of states are smaller than the whole country, so Local governments give a more important role to citizens than others. For example, citizens can use their voting power to elect who became president, as well as other politicians. Also citizens’ voices can be heard through voting, or they can represent their opinions on policies or even some local projects. In other words, citizens have some certain power to design their local development. Confederation is similar to the federal system which gives citizens some rights to show their voice under the local districts. Both federal and confederation’s structure are similar, but in a confederal system power is distributed equally among the states. Also the main shortage with this system of government is to achieve regional self-rule but sacrifice effective national governance. Lastly, the Unitary government has all the key power, but local governments have less power, which means local governments need to follow and obey the Unitary government. So local citizens at some point are playing less of a role under the unitary system.

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

People might think the President in America has absolute power. In fact, he is only one piece of the power puzzle since the founding fathers didn’t want to establish another country that was ruled by a king. To have a fair government and protect individual freedoms, they designed to balance the power in the federal government which is to share power among three branches of government—the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. A department cannot have two kinds of all powers at the same time. For instance, it cannot have both legislative power and executive power, or both legislative power and judicial power, or three kinds of powers at the same time. Since each of them has its own power, to prevent abuse of their power, they can check the power of the other two. The genius of the dividing power system is to work together to run the country. However, the constitution has marked the boundaries of the power of each department, in other words, just writing what power each department has in the constitution, the problem is how to prevent one department from infringing on the power of another department. So it’s necessary to prevent weaker departments from being abused by stronger ones. Legislature is the most powerful one. It plays a legislative function, and its power is active.

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 COVID-19 pandemic has caused a serious public health crisis, and affected the whole society’s economy and all Americans financially badly.  For that case, the federal government has enacted a number of emergency legislation and provided funding. The aim is to help all states, businesses, every family and even individuals overcome the difficulty during the crisis. The congress has enacted several acts. The major bills, costing about $5.3 trillion to help all the states to manage the pandemic, as well as  every American. The Federal government has relief bills to respond to the pandemic. As an initial response, Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act was enacted in early March, 2020 for public health agencies and coronavirus vaccine research. On March 18, 2020, Families First Coronavirus Response Act was enacted to provide economic support to those in need. The U.S. House passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act on March 27, 2020 to assist companies that are critical to national security and distressed sectors of the economy. The Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act was enacted on April 24, 2020 to support small business, hospitals, and testing for the pandemic. on December 27, 2020 the U.S. Senate and U.S. House passed the Economic Partnership Act. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, enacted on December 27, 2020, included $868 billion of federal support to help mitigate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the federal government responded to the virus immediately by legislation and funding which helped the state government to relieve the pressure on its economy, so that they can focus on more specific legislation to help citizens. On the other hand, State governments also use emergency bills and provide good medical services to citizens. Thinking back to when the coronavirus just spread, everyone’s reaction was panic. In fact, that was a very natural reaction. Now most companies and individuals can return to normal lives through the federal and state governments’ efforts and support which I am very grateful for.