State and local government

[Mauk & Oakland, chapter 5]

The Constitution leaves a considerable amount of power to the states, which was absolutely necessary in order to get it ratified. States' rights then, as now, were highly valued, which is not surprising when you consider the fear of dictatorship that was prevalent in the eighteenth century.
If you add to this the complications involved in communication and travel in those days, it becomes quite natural that states would have considerable freedom in how they governed themselves. The different background of the colonists were also important to the kind of local government that was esteblished in the various states.

Further reading:
State and local government in Outline of American Government
Significant events in American federalism, 1776-1997
Reinventing American Federalism from Issues of Democracy

A brief explanation of the 10th Amendment

One complicated factor regarding states' rights is the concept of reserved powers, delegated powers, and concurrent powers. To fully understand these concepts, it is essential to know something about the history of the Constitution. After the revolution, the idea of government by the people, for the people, carried the day. Since the colonies/states already existed, they wrote their own constitutions first. Then, in order to form "a more perfect union," they joined together to write a constitutional document for the whole nation. Thus, we can say that the states were sovereign at first, then decided to give up some of their power to the national government in order to form a functional nation state. Where are the people? In the states. What is the whole idea of representative government? The people choose a representative to promote their interests in government. Thus, the people give some of their power to government, but in a democracy, power ultimately rests with the voters, who can remove the government in the next election if they are unhappy with the way they are being represented.

So, after all this has been said, we can easily see that the people have delegated power to the government, and this is done on different levels - local, state, and federal. For example, the right to coin money, conduct foreign policy, and declare war, are best left to the national government. Some powers, however, the states did not want to give away, so they reserved them for themselves. In such a big country, the people felt it natural to keep most powers on the state/local level. An example would be the power to establish local governments. It is not practical to have the federal government establish those all over the country. Then there were certain powers that were not specified to any level of government, which means that they are exercised concurrently by both the state and the federal government. Taxes are an example of this. There are state taxes, and there are federal taxes, both in the same area. Over time, power has shifted dramatically in favor of the federal government, for different reasons. Read more about those in the text book.

Related materials:
The tenth amendment

State government

As we now know, the state governments came first, which makes it no surprise that their structure parallels that of the federal government. They all have their own constitution, they have separation of powers between three branches of government, which is controlled by a system of checks and balances. Check out some of the links below to see how the states have decided to organize government. Nebraska should be especially interesting, since it is the only state with a unicameral legislature.

Links to state governments:
Alabama Hawaii Massachusetts New Mexico South Dakota Alaska Idaho Michigan New York Tennessee Arizona Illinois Minnesota North Carolina Texas Arkansas Indiana Mississippi North Dakota Utah California Iowa Missouri Ohio Vermont Colorado Kansas Montana Oklahoma Virginia Connecticut Kentucky Nebraska Oregon Washington Delaware Louisiana Nevada Pennsylvania West Virginia Florida Maine New Hampshire Rhode Island Wisconsin Georgia Maryland New Jersey South Carolina Wyoming

Local government

There is a lot of variation in local government in the U.S. All local governments are created by the state, and none has sovereignty in its own right. They have simply been created to help administer local communities: to facilitate the work of the state. Tasks typically delegated to local governments include providing local transportation, schools, fire and police protection, water and sanitation systems, and medical programmes and buildings. Counties collect local taxes to pay for these services.

Local government structures come in different forms, depending on the state constitution and, to a certain extent, on when the local government unit was established. For example, in the Northeast, there is a goodly number of towns that are run by manner of the town meeting. This form of direct democracy was common in the New England colonies, but one can still find it in other parts of the U.S. as well. A more common form ca be seen behind this link to the government organizational structure of Jackson, Wyoming, a small town with 4,677 people. On the other hand, the United States has some extremely large local government units, such as the one in New York City. It is obvious that local government needs to be flexible in the way it is organized, and who better to understand what is needed than the states themselves? That is the whole point of the Tenth Amendment.

Relevant materials:
Test your knowledge!

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