Essay on Difference Between Roles of Federal and State Governments in United States

The United States Constitution through federalism divided the government into federal and state government. The federal government is made stronger and is divided into legislative, executive and judicial arms. Legislative arm is composed of Congress whose role is to make laws while the judicial arm is formed of supreme court and other courts that evaluate laws. The Executive consists of the president, vice president and cabinet whose roles is to carry out laws. The federal government is formed through federalism by state governments to be a central government that has great power to oversee over 50 states.

The state of Georgia is one of the small states under the federal government. Its constitution resembles the federal model and creates a government that is branched into executive, legislative and judicial branches that maintain a balance of power. The executive branch is composed of Governor, lieutenant governor and other officials while the legislature consists of the state senate and house of representatives. The judicial branch is composed of six different courts that interpret the laws. Federal and state governments have different roles as the constitution determines how power is shared between the two governments.

The federal government is more powerful is tasked to oversee trade between the states and other countries through setting policies and laws. The state constitutions like Georgia Constitution allows the states to only monitor trade within an individual state. Also, the states have no powers to manage foreign relations as the Constitution gives such powers to the federal government which can engage other powerful countries like Great Britain. They can enter treaties with other countries governments and control trade between states and international countries. The constitution governing the whole united states is established by the federal government. The Constitution gives them powers to interpret and revise laws and intercede in case one state is impeding the rights of another state. Moreover, they set laws that are abided by all state and local governments. These include immigration laws, civil rights laws, social security laws and bankruptcy laws. The Georgia constitution allows the state government to set rules that govern the individual state. The laws include legal drinking and smoking age and other small amendments to the US Constitution.

Federal governments have exclusive powers to establish an army and navy and making laws necessary to enforce the Constitution that governs the entire states. They have the power to print money such as bills and coins and declare war as observed in 2014 where the Congress used their power to declare war against the Islamic state. The state governments have exclusive powers to establish local governments such as self-government cities like Batumi and self-government communities like Abasha and Kareli. They regulate intrastate commerce and provide for public health and public safety.

The other main difference concerns the powers given by the supreme court to federal governments over state governments. The federal governments have exclusive powers of impeaching officials, imposing tariffs and overseeing state policy. The federal law prevails over state laws except on citizen rights. The federal law applies to all citizens within a country, but the state laws apply only to individuals within a state. A great example is legalizing marijuana where some states allow its usage while other states prohibit its usage. However, the federal law has powers to overrule the state laws as it makes it illegal for marijuana use.