Role of Federal and State Government in Protecting Critical National Infrastructure

Running Head: FEDERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENT
FEDERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENT
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1FEDERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENT
In a democratic establishment, the role of the federal and state government is highly
pivotal in order to restore and retain the national as well as regional interests. Most of the
democratic nation has a clear identification of state level and national level government having a
coordination between each other (Berke, Lyles and Smith 2014). As a matter of fact, the
democratic constitution has been shaped in such a way that creates a power checks and balance
between the federal and state government. In this regard, there are two type of government
structure in the name of federal government and quasi-federal government. However, the
purpose of both types of government is to restore the sovereignty and safety of the nation and its
regional solidarity which is one of the major aspect to build a democratic state. Based on this
understanding, this discussion tries to analyse the role of federal and state government in both
normal times and in crisis situation. Moreover, the essay also intends to focus on the cohesion
between the federal and state government in order to neutralise any national threat.
The democratic structure of the government requires a collaboration between the state
and the federal government. In this context, there are two types of government structure in terms
of the federal government and the quasi-federal government (Coggburn 2017). In the federal
government like in US both the federal and state government share an equal power and practice
to some extent. However, the US federal system of government witnesses different types of
regulation and privileges in national level and state level. As a matter of fact, dual citizenship is
also prevalent in the US constitution so that the citizens enjoy national citizenship and at the
same time state citizenship as well (Agranoff 2014). On the contrary, in countries like India a set
of quasi-federal or semi federal government structure can be identified where both format of
government share their individual power but the state government has to follow the federal
government over the national context (Singh, Gupta and Ojha 2014). Therefore, the role of both

2FEDERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENT
the federal and state government is highly pertinent in order to shape and protect the democratic
sentiment. As a matter of fact, in a federal form of government, the state authority and agencies
has to cooperate with the federal government. In association to this, it is important for the state
government to ensure safety and security for the critical national infrastructure plan and cope
with the federal government initiatives as well.
According to Wallis (2018) the critical national infrastructure encompasses threats like
the potential target for terrorists, identifying the existing infrastructure and the risk factors
associated with the national infrastructure protection. In this regard, the federal government is
responsible to deal with critical national infrastructure and ensuring welfare and prosperity for
the nation. As a result of that procuring and manifesting a set of strategies, theories and plans to
bolster the protection of the nation is identified as one of the major concern for the federal
government. Moreover, the research of Miron and Muita (2014) advocated that protecting the
key resources in terms of human work force and the mineral resources is also listed into the
pertinent tasks of the federal government. Ranking and prioritising the national infrastructure is
also encapsulated into the task of the national government as well. However, the research of Carr
(2016) stated that the federal government did not have enough power to set a better facility and
protection of the national resources. Cooperation from the state authority is also an intricate part
in the government strategic planning. For an example, the state of Massachusetts accepts to take
adequate responsibility and intends to provide assistance to the federal government in order to
develop plans and strategies with the highest national interest.
As far as the general homeland security strategy of the federal government is concerned,
it can be seen that the federal government puts great deal of importance in the practice of
protecting the critical infrastructures and the key resource of United States. There are four