The United States Government's Three Levels

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The United States government is divided into three levels: federal, state and local. These different levels of government provide the framework of services that are extended to the public. All of these levels form part of the U.S. federalist system which shares and distributes power amongst the federal, state and local governments. Each of the United States forms of government have their own separation of power to ensure that there are checks and balances to limit likelihood of waste, corruption, abuse and/or fraud. The federal, state and local levels of government have powers that are exclusive and some which are shared amongst the governmental levels. Federal Government • Printing money • Declaring war • Establishment of an armed forces…show more content…
This is often the case when the federal government does not possess the necessary resources to handle a situation without assistance (Myers, 2013). An example of such a case was during the H1N1 outbreak, when federal officials were forced to ask state and local health departments to use their credibility to persuade the public to use a new and seemingly untested flu vaccine (Myers, 3013). Although the Federal government has more access to funds due to their ability to incur a deficit to fund their day-to-day operations, local governments have more credibility within their communities because they are aware of the daily needs and struggles of the citizens within their populations. State and local governments are required to maintain a balanced budget which makes the decision making process more difficult; their expenditures are unable to exceed incoming tax revenue for the budget year (Schutchfield & Keck,

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