Enumerated Power Essay

With a baseless idea, it is fundamentally impossible to have a true, functioning government of democracy. While there are numerous essential foundations to our United States government, three tend to stand out more importantly. These principles include enumerated powers, reserved powers, and concurrent powers. The general assignment that is placed upon these is segregation of state and federal responsibilities, minus one, which includes divided power. Discussing the exact duties of each principle can help us to better comprehend our country’s overall policies. The first key principle, enumerated power, is one that is delegated to the federal, or national, government. This include things such as the “authority to print money, declare war, make …show more content…
From controlling public education and conducting elections, to protecting public health/safety and punishing criminals, the state is able to conduct many things which are not physically written, but are “a given” and understood. A perfect example of one of these powers expressed by the state government would be the decision of a grade school teacher’s pay. It is not uncommon a child will hear once in their grade school life a teacher make not-so-great comments about the amount they are paid. However, the children do not realize that it is the state’s “fault”, not the school, like they might have thought. Interestingly, the final type of power, known as concurrent powers, offers governing factors to both on a state level and the national level. It is a shared power. These are defined by the textbook to “include collecting taxes, building roads, borrowing money, and maintaining courts” (Wilson 34). Without this field of authority, crimes we have today may have not even been in existence, for this is where crimes are defined. Welfare would also be non-existent. It is safe to say that this is an extremely important piece to the