Answer: The main difference between the federal and confederal systems of government lies in who has the power.
In a federal system of government, there is a strong central government which has the majority of the power. In a confederal system, the central government is quite weak and the entities that making up the confederation, such as states, are the ones with all the power. When the United States switched from the Articles of Confederation to the U.S. Constitution, the federal government was given much more power than the central government had under the Articles of Confederation.