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

Voting for representatives at the federal, state, and local levels is one way that citizens get involved with the government. Because state and local governments have the authority to decide on matters like transportation and education, this structure gives more local influence. In a confederation, like the early US, power is mostly controlled by individual states or regions, meaning citizens just interact with their local governments, while the central authority remains weak and has a limited impact over people. People in a unitary system mostly deal with a powerful central government that controls all of the power. Even though there are local governments, their powers have limits to the people in charge, the federal government. So, unitary systems control decision making, confederations prefer local control, and federal systems give dual participation.

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

The system of division of power describes how responsibility and authority are divided between different levels of government. The three branches are legislative, executive, and judicial. The legislative branch is Congress, and they create and pass laws, control government spending, and tax. The Judicial branch is the courts, they handle legal issues and interpret the laws. The executive is the president, vice president, and the cabinet, they handle the military and foreign policy.

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

Through a mixture of funding, rules, mandates, and incentives, the federal government influences the activities of state and local governments. Federal grants is one important method.  During Covid, they used emergency funding, the cares act, fema, New York got help from federal agencies to boost its testing abilities and contact tracing activities. I believe you weren’t able to get evicted because of the state of the country.