Federal Powers Vs. State Powers
The federal power has dramatically grown as compared to the power of the state. That is because, over time, the federal government has expanded since it has managed to co-opt various state powers through cooperative federalism, thereby delegating its powers to the state. In this context, delegated powers are mainly given to the federal government as envisioned in Article I, Sec. 8 of the constitution. That has granted the federal power the capacity of regulating commerce and related activities, declare war, mint money and currency, maintaining and raising the armed forces. In addition, the federal power has the powers of establishing a post office. Another key reason why the federal power has outgrown the state power is due to fiscal federalism (Natelson 5). In this regard, the federal powers have the authority to comprehend the relationship among local, state, and federal governments. Fiscal federalism can be defined as the economic outline that concentrates on the division of expenditure and taxation among the aforementioned governments (Lowrey 7).
Evidently, this makes the federal powers to outgrow the states power since some of the vital powers are vested upon federal governments in comparison to state governments. It is important to note that both the federal and state powers share some powers and this includes collection of taxes, building key infrastructure (Han and Hong 17) such as roads, borrowing funds, establishing courts and formulating as well as enforcing laws. The federal powers are to some extent superior to the state powers since federal governments have the capacity to exercise powers that are exclusively granted to them and not to the state governments. This includes regulating international and interstate trade, and managing foreign relations. After carefully evaluating all the factors discussed herein, it is evident that the federal powers have the potential of having a more profound growth relative to the states.