James Garner - Government in the United States, National, State and Local

My aim in the preparation of this book has been to present in an elementary way the leading facts concerning the organization and activities of national, state, and local government in the United States. I have given rather greater emphasis than is customarily done in textbooks of this character to what may be called the dynamics of government, that is, its actual workings, as contradistinguished from organization. Likewise, I have laid especial stress upon the activities and methods of political parties, party conventions, primaries, the conduct of political campaigns, the regulation of campaign methods, and the like. The increasing importance of citizenship has led me to devote a chapter to that subject. To encourage wider reading among students, I have added to each chapter a brief list of references to books which should be in every high school library. The great value of illustrative material as a means of acquainting students with the spirit and actual methods of government is now recognized. For the convenience of teachers, I have therefore added at the end of each chapter a list of documentary and other illustrative material, most of which can be procured without cost and all of which may be used to advantage in supplementing the descriptive matter in the textbook. To stimulate the spirit of research and to encourage independent thinking among students, I have also added at the end of each chapter a list of search questions bearing upon the various subjects treated in the chapter.

I am under obligations to a number of teachers for reading the proof sheets of this book and for giving me the benefit of their advice. Among those to whom I am especially indebted are Mr. Clarence O. Gardner, formerly assistant in political science in the University of Illinois, Mr. W. A. Beyer, of the Illinois State Normal University, Mr. C. H. Elliott, of the Southern Illinois State Normal University, Mr. E. T. Austin, of the Sterling Township (Ill.) High School, and Mr. William Wallis, Principal of the Bloomington (Ill.) High School.

Urbana, Illinois.

Kinds of Local Government.– Most of us live under at least four different governmental organizations: the government of the United States, the government of a state, the government of a county, and the government of a minor division, usually called a town or township. In addition to (or sometimes instead of) the county or township government, many of us live under a special form of government provided for urban communities, – cities, villages, or boroughs, – where the population is comparatively dense and where, therefore, the somewhat simple form of government provided for rural communities is insufficient. If the people of the smaller communities are allowed to choose their own public officials and, within certain limits, to determine their own policies in public matters of a local character, they have a system of local self-government . If, on the contrary, they are governed by some distant central authority which determines their local policies and by which their local officials are appointed, they live under a system of centralized government .

Merits of Local Self-Government.– In the United States, the privilege of local self-government is regarded as one of the chief merits of our political system, and it is often declared to be one of the inalienable rights of the people. One great advantage of local self-government is that it brings government near the door of every citizen, and permits the people of each locality, who are most familiar with their own local conditions and who know best what are their local needs, to regulate their own affairs as they see fit. Also, such a system is well calculated to secure responsibility. So long as the local authorities are chosen by the community from its own inhabitants and are constantly under the eyes of the people, to whom they are responsible, they can be more effectively controlled by local public opinion than is possible where they are chosen by authorities distantly removed. Another important advantage of local self-government is that it serves as a training school for the political education of the citizens. Allow them the privilege of choosing their own local officials and of regulating their own local concerns, and their interest in public affairs will be stimulated and their political intelligence increased and broadened. This not only will tend to secure more responsible government (local, state, and national), but will produce a more active type of citizenship.

Importance of Local Government.– With the growth and congestion of population in centers, and the increasing complexity of our industrial and social life, the importance of local self-government has enormously increased. The local governments touch us at many more points to-day than does either the state or the national government; they regulate a far larger proportion of the concerns of our everyday life; and hence we feel the effects of corrupt or inefficient local government more keenly than we feel the effects of inefficient state or national government. We depend largely upon our local governments for the maintenance of the peace, order, and security of the community; for the protection of the public health; for the support of our schools; for the construction and maintenance of roads and bridges; for the care of the poor; and if we live in a city, for protection against fire, for our water supply, usually, and for many other services essential to our comfort and happiness. Finally, the larger proportion of the taxes we pay goes toward the support of local government – a fact which makes it very important that our local governments should be efficiently, honestly, and economically conducted.

Types of Local Government.– The form of local government existing in each state is such as the state itself provides, the national government having no authority whatever over the matter. Such differences as exist are more largely the result of historical conditions growing out of the early settlement of the states, than of any pronounced differences of opinion among the people in regard to forms of government. Since colonial times there have been three general types of local rural government in America: the town system , in New England; the county system , which originated in Virginia and spread to other colonies and states; and the county-township type – a combination of the first two forms – which developed in the middle colonies of New York and Pennsylvania and was carried to many Western states by settlers from the middle states, and is now the most common form to be found.

Town and County in New England.– The characteristic feature of the town system of government is that the management of local affairs devolves mainly upon the town (or township, as it is usually called outside of New England), while the county is little more than an administrative district for judicial and election purposes. In some of the New England states, where the town system originated and where it exists in its purest form, the county is almost ignored as an area for local government. In Rhode Island it performs practically no duties of local government and is merely a judicial district; there no county officers are to be found except the sheriff and clerks of the courts. In the other New England states the county plays a more important part than it does in Rhode Island, but in none of them does it share with the towns in anything like an equal measure the burden of local government.