1. Politics in States and Communities (15 Ed.)
Thomas Dye and Susan MacManus

2. Governing America’s Communities
Chapter 10
Governing America’s Communities
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3. Learning Objectives
Explain the challenges local governments face because of their diversity in population size, square miles, and socioeconomic composition.
Analyze the structure and functions of the system comprised of 89,000 local governments.
Describe the diversity of county governments.
Compare and contrast county commission, county administrator, and county executive governmental structures.
Describe the duties of county officials, and discuss how home rule charters, townships, and New England towns are organized.
Examine the mayor-council and council-manager forms of city government; outline the commission, town meeting, and representative town meeting forms of city government; and describe which forms of city government are most prevalent.
Evaluate how successfully nonpartisan elections have taken the “politics” out of local government and raised the caliber of candidates for elected office.
Compare at-large and district electoral systems, and how the electoral system affects which candidates are most likely to be victorious.
Describe special-purpose local governments known as special districts, and list the various purposes for which these districts were created.
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4. Local Government
Creating a “sense of community”: Friends and neighbors interact, voluntarism is high, and government and citizens communicate
Providing services and managing conflict: The two principal functions of community political systems
Sources of community conflict: Human diversity the source of all political conflict
Coping with dissatisfaction: Can do nothing, move away, or try to change things
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5. Local Governments in the United States
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6. Government Favorability by Level: Local Government Rated Highest
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7. Eighty-Nine Thousand Governments
Why Should You Care about the Structure of Local Government?
What Should Citizens Focus on at the Local Level?
Local Government Functions Differ by State:
Counties: Rural or Urban
Cities
Towns and Townships: Midwestern Townships and New England Towns
School Districts
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8. County Governments: Rural and Urban
All states, except Connecticut and Rhode Island, have organized county governments that perform administrative duties
Counties are called “parishes” in Louisiana and “boroughs” in Alaska
Total 3,031 counties in the United States
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9. The Structure of County Government
County governments differ markedly in their organization:
A governing body
Separately elected officials
A large number of special boards or commissions
An appointed county bureaucracy
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10. Structure of County Government
Traditional county commission structure: In one-third of counties
County administrator structure: Elected commission appoints administrator/manager
Elected county executive/county mayor structure: Voters elect chief executive officer separately from county commission
County officials: Include commissioners, sheriff, coroner, district attorney, clerk, tax assessor, etc.
Home rule charter counties: Can exercise all powers not specifically prohibited by law or charter
Townships: Mostly in unincorporated areas
The New England town: Town meeting or representative town meeting
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11. General-Purpose Local Governments

12. Special-Purpose Local Governments

13. Structures of County Government

14. Forms of County Government
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15. Cities as “Municipal Corporations”
Dillon’s Rule: Courts interpret powers granted in charters very narrowly
Types of Municipal Charters:
Special Act Charters
General Act Charters
Optional Charters
Home Rule
Courts restrict local powers: Result is to greatly strengthen courts, attorneys, and defenders of the status quo
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16. Forms of City Government
Commission: Gives legislative and executive power to a small body, usually of five members
Council-manager: Elected council or commission appoints manager
Elected mayor (hybrid mayor-manager form of government): About two-thirds of council-manager communities elect a mayor
Mayor-council: May be “strong” or “weak”
Town meeting and representative town meeting: Currently only in five New England states
Changing city charters: The trend toward hybrid forms: Many options, but getting voters to support structural changes is difficult
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17. Forms of City Government

18. American Cities: Forms of Government
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19. Nonpartisan Elections
Nonpartisan elections are elections in which the candidates’ names appear on a ballot without indication of their party affiliation.
Incumbent advantage: Incumbents council members are elected at very high rates in nonpartisan elections
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20. Voters Don’t Always Approve Structural Changes
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21. Local Election Systems
Types of at-large systems: Pure, by position, from residency district
Single-member district systems: Candidates are chosen by voters in separate geographically defined districts
Combination election systems: Some officials are elected at large; others from single-member districts
Civil rights tests: Must pass results as well as intent test
Federal court intervention: Getting harder for cities to defend exclusive reliance on at-large elections
Minority representation: Recent gains, close to parity
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22. Comparing Single-Member District and Mixed (Combination) Election Systems
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23. Comparing Single-Member District and Mixed (Combination) Election Systems
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24. Special-Purpose Local Governments
School districts: Local school districts have an elected school board and an appointed superintendent in most areas
Special districts: More than 37,000 nationwide, but special districts are less well known to most voters and there is little accountability to the public
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25. Some School Boards Pay School Superintendents More than the Governor Makes

26. www.naco.org National Association of Counties
On the Web
National Association of Counties
National League of Cities
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