All of you should be familiar with the term "State's Rights".  The term means that for most issues affecting the citizens of a state, it is that state, not the federal government which should have juristiction.
    This nation is a collection of states.  The states themselves are a collection of counties or parishes.  Counties or parishes are a collection of cities or towns.  This brings forward a fundamental question.  The Constitution states that the fundamental holders of ultimate rights in this country is each of us.  But each of us, acting in conjunction with other citizens fundamentally pawn off some of our rights to the city, town or county that we live in.  This brings up the question of where the state get's it's power.  In theory, the people (us) have only certified our our town, city and country, or parish leaders to represent our interests (provide protection, pick up and dispose of garbage, maintain the streets and parks, ect)  The power to the local officials is only granted so that our collective well being can be safe guarded.  
    Logically, the state would somehow have to be involved to insure that the policies and laws in each town, city, county or parish conforms to some more or less uniform standard.  If this power did not exist for example, to give an out there example, one city or county could require that cars go on a red light (legally, that is) and the next town or city over could require that cars go on a green light.  Although the power that a state has to have is intuitively obvious for some functions, the people did not directly grant the state those rights, so the rights are not valid, theoretically.  The possible way that people grant statewide power, although probaly unintentionally, is through the election of local legislators and senators for the state assembly and senate.
    Maybe someone who has knowlege of state charters can shed some light on the relationship between the state and the people (via the local governmental bodies and representatives).