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GOV 201 Part I: Structure of American Government Local Government Local and County Governments are "Creatures of the State". They are administrative subdivisions of the State with limited powers of local self-government. Whatever local governments do must be specifically authorized by the State Constitution and/or State Statute.
Forms of Local Government (Names of Geographical Units)
Municipal Corporations are incorporated. This gives them a legal personality distinct from the state government. The Municipal Charter is the equivalent of the constitution for the municipality. Unincorporated territories are directly under state statutory law. More and more local governments are becoming incorporated municipalities even when they retain their old designations, like township. The growing SUBURBANIZATION since World War II is making the distinction between rural and urban less relevant. New Jersey is one of the most urban states in the nation. In Union County, there really are no rural areas left; only areas of greater or lesser urban density. We are all urban. The existing pattern of local governments derives from our rural past. It no longer has any relevance to contemporary population patterns. Metropolitan Areas
Many metropolitan areas form metropolitan regions, megalopolis, or conurbation. The Northeast Metropolitan Region extends from New Hampshire to Virginia. Metropolitan Areas and Regions do not respect State boundaries. The New York Metropolitan Area includes New York City, surrounding counties in New York State, southern Connecticut, and northern New Jersey. More than 1000 local governments, often with overlapping jurisdiction, attempt to govern this metropolitan area. American local government has become antiquated, ineffectual, and wasteful. Nonetheless, local home rule sentiment is strong and any major reform is unlikely. Special districts are one method of supplementing local multi-purpose governments: special water district, sewage district, etc. School disticts are a very common type of special district. Elected school boards supervise the management of local schools from kindergarten through twelvth grade. Grammar schools, middle schools, high schools (9th to 12th). In some States, community colleges are under the jurisdiction of elected school districts. This is not the case in New Jersey. Types of Local Governments
The Council refers to the legislative component of local government. Electing council members may be:
County Government in New Jersey Board of Chosen Freeholders holds the legislative power Union County has nine freeholders, elected at-large, Essex County has an elected county executive (like a County government pays part of the costs of public Finances of Local Governments Property Tax pays for most of local government, local Functions of Local (Municipal) Government
Functions of Board of Education
Functions of County Government
County government is both a unit of local self government AND a legal subdivision of the State. In effect the County seat duplicates many of the services available in the State capital. County is an administrative arm of the State Government. Local Problems. In one sense, all politics is local and all domestic political issues are local problems. If every local community had adequate housing, good education, plentiful jobs, clean air, fresh water, good recreational facilities, superb hospitals, and no crime, then America's domestic problems would be solved. But if most communities have excessive crime rates, homeless people, inadequate job opportunities, lousy educational systems, and foul air, then local problems become national problems. Local communities simply lack the resources and, often, the jurisdiction to deal with problems that extend beyond their borders. The growth of state government and federal involvement in local and state matters is due to the national scope of most of our problems. The traditional, rigid division of power, dual federalism, is not working. We need to improve the cooperative federalism approach begun during the 1930s but shelved during the so-called Reagan Revolution of the 1980s. Local Politics. Most of America's elected officials represent local communities. Who runs Cranford, Westfield, Elizabeth, and Plainfield? Who runs Union County? The obvious answer is that those whom we elect run our towns. But who are these men and women? Why are they running for school board, township committee, or freeholder board? Most locally elected positions are part-time jobs which pay only a minimal salary. Locally elected officials tend to be community leaders prior to their election. They come from middle and upper-middle income groups. They belong often to locally prominent families. At the local level, the interplay of socio-economic status and politics is most plainly visible. Owners of local businesses, presidents of union locals, vestry persons of local churches, professionals, corporate executives, and prominent (wealthy) families play a large role in local politics. Community power studies are a part of political science which studies local elites. Leaders may be identified by the reputational method and the situational method. Community power studies conducted by sociologists have tended to suggest that a local power elite run the show. Political scientists have been more inclined to believe in pluralistic leadership processes: different leaders emerge for different policy issues. Unfortunately, both agree that the average citizen usually stays on the sidelines. Union County, New Jersey, is one of 21 counties within the State of New Jersey. It is governed by a nine member Board of Chosen Freeholders and operates under a County-Manager Plan of government. The county government maintains an extensive Web page which may be accessed at County of Union, NJ, We are Connected to You. Within the county, there are 21 communities. The following County page on Municipalities links to each of these communities' individual Web pages.
Copyright Dr. Harold Damerow
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