The World, in Their Hands

The World, in Their Hands

The World, in Their Hands
The balance of power between both levels of government has always been a deep and complex debate. The Federal government, which consists of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, serves the people and enforces federal laws. While it is common for one to believe it may hold too much power, the Constitution limits their power to an extent, which in turn provides power to state governments. The question of which level holds more power is can be difficult to determine, but can be figured out through facts and logic.
According to political author James Gardner, "The U.S. Constitutional framers gave national and state governments different authorities and responsibilities in the federal structure." (Gardner) This means that the founding fathers of the Constitution intended for both levels of government to serve a specific function in society. Originally, after the American Revolution, the Framers quickly created the Articles of Confederation. The Articles were designed to give more power to State governments, because they feared the rise of a strong central government, similar to Great Britain’s. Although a logical solution at the time, the Framers quickly realized that the Articles gave too much power to the states, and it more so isolated each State from one another, rather than unify the nation. After drafting the Constitution, it appeared to evenly distribute power between the central government and the state governments. The Tenth Amendment granted states “reserved powers”, which are reserved specifically for the states, and are mostly police powers (law enforcement, health and education, etc.) “Granted powers”, (also known as enumerated or implied powers) are those granted to Congress. Enumerated powers are those specifically stated in the Constitution, while implied powers are those powers authorized by the Constitution which, while not stated, are deemed to be implied by powers expressly stated....

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