federal government definition

federal government definition

Exploring the Definition and Role of the Federal Government

1. Introduction to the Federal Government

Under this system, the individual components of the United States determine some of their political obligations individually, through the people of the state. The balance of power is therefore more complex than the personal decisions of the state and federal governments. The government should carefully consider the federal health issues to avoid unexpected relationships, arbitrary ties, or unproductive conflict scenarios. Apart from physical problems, parties, interest groups, and everyday citizens should also have a clear picture of the role of the federal government. When people read congressional bills, judicial review decisions, law enforcement reports, and state statistics or report on current events, having a clear legal framework for the federal government has important implications for everyone in the United States. Federal issues deal with how shared legal institutions control the legal differences and statutory differences between states. Knowing this, one can ask questions about how and why the federal government provides what it provides.

If a group of people sat down in a sweltering classroom to design a system for the government, it is unlikely that they would reinvent the American system as we know it today. Over the years, the United States has slowly constructed a collection of governing institutions that are much more complex than a simple set of councils and assemblies to guide the state. Instead, the United States today operates under a federal system. Like many other modern states, the country divides its political power among several levels of government. Most political decisions are the responsibility of the states or local communities, and these governments raise big investments, keeping power close to the citizens of the United States. Yet, to best accomplish these tasks, states allow a hierarchy of officials with defined powers to explain relationships within the United States. These officials are members of a national or federal political system of the United States.

2. Historical Evolution of the Federal Government

A series of stages in the historical evolution of the federal government may be delineated as movements of the federal government along a spectrum ranging from little or no relative authority (license) to acting fully within the scope of authorized activities. These stages or periods have sometimes been indicated or influenced by specific historical occurrences and thus may not be precisely dated. These stages are sometimes characterized as long periods or “ages” (e.g., the age of Laissez Faire, the New Deal). We commonly refer to the movement from the historical Articles of Confederation to the present-day federal government within the framework of the Constitution as restoration and progression. This statement on restoration is supported by the Concurrent Resolutions of January 19, 1983, that The United States areas of Constitutional Government for such a restoration. These are the resolution; to “express the sense of the Congress that the restoration of the United States’ constitutional principles should be accomplished” and “commitment for it, and to the healing process,” and commend “all the President and his Administration, the United States justices and other officers of the Federal government, as well as urged to officials in the States and the people of the United States to respond to such commitment and to join in such effort.”

The continuing historical evolution of the United States has been delineated as a movement from authorization to license in the behavior of various entities. A similar description is possible for the historical evolution of the federal government itself. As recorded in our founding documents, in 1776 the federal government or the United States was acknowledged to exist but had no functioning authority. By the Articles of Confederation (1781) and the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776), authority was established. Within these documents, we find explicit statements that the United States include citizens in their defined status as free and independent states. Articles of Confederation, Article III, states that “The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other.” These legacies are important components of today’s definition of the United States and the source of federal authority. Beginning this period, this definition states that we have a geographically compact and contiguous continental landmass. Political documents establish a network of free and independent states with protected internal comity.

3. Key Functions and Responsibilities of the Federal Government

The national government has expanded and transformed over the past century to meet new and changing demands. From the early part of the twentieth century, even before that, the federal government’s role in addressing the problem of revolts from the states under the Articles of Confederation was a mixed success at best. Early estimates varied of the increased workload and burning federal bureaucrats, which would result from federal legislation. Policymakers, legal scholars, and constitutional theorists have argued that the federal government has evolved into a giant, haphazardly centralized leviathan, which dominates the states and no longer respects the limitations on its jurisdiction. They argue the federal bureaucracy has grown so large that it is no longer responsible to its political entities, and that federal administrative endeavors now represent a significant, dangerous distortion.

Recently, they decided to clarify the lines of responsibility and open the lines of communication in the federal political system, reminding ourselves of where the lines of authority lie, and making recommendations about how these lines could be strengthened. The federal government should be a partner with the states, providing consistent roles and leadership, and promoting open and ongoing coordination. The federal government, in carrying out its role, has gotten into increasing spending without the needed reforms at the state and federal level or the federal level of oversight. Federal laws and acts have created a number of new federal programs and policies over the past decade, which have expanded various roles and responsibilities at the state and local levels of government. To a notable degree, Congress has also largely repealed its primary method of directing the Executive Branch to act by writing detailed program mandates and micromanaging administrative activities.

4. Impact of the Federal Government on Society and Economy

Some of the benefits of federal government programs include consumer watchdogs to protect from shady business practices; safer air, water, food, and products; a communications network, and better information systems. Federal agencies also provide many of the things we may take for granted, such as a national highway system, a postal service, and a national bank. They help care for some needs of the poor and homeless, regulate foreign trade and immigration, and in many more ways. All of these federal programs differ from one another, maybe different in the services they provide and the people they serve, but a set of common characteristics also links them. These characteristics form a broad definition of the federal government.

The impact of the federal government on society and the economy goes far beyond the visible effects of Social Security checks or the inventions made possible by government-supported research. Government programs and adornments of modern society play a role in most people’s daily lives that they may not expect. Imagine, for a moment, what living in the United States would be like if the NPS, the FBI, the CIA, NASA, and other federal agencies ceased to exist. Citizens would be without some essential services, and the world would be entirely different.

5. Challenges and Future Directions for the Federal Government

B) Over the decades, the boundaries of the public sector, as traditionally defined, have undergone substantial changes in response to shifting public values and to changes in the economy and demographics. Continuous changes in federal programs, however, have not been accompanied by similar continuous changes in the mechanisms that are used to deliver federal programs and by changes in the ways that federal programs are financed. At the same time, the internal problems faced by the federal establishment compound still more the expanding extrinsic pressures on the federal government. To meet the formidable fiscal and economic burdens now facing the public sector and to increase its capacity for coping with the future, both the reach and the internal capacity of the public sector must be realigned with the new fiscal, economic, and social realities.

A) Public expectations with respect to the federal government continue to change and expand. Constituencies that expect regulatory protection and services funded through the government or its agencies have grown since the 1930s. Mechanisms established to deliver government programs have not always kept pace with changes in constituent needs and expectations.