The Role of Local Government
The public administration of districts, counties and towns is referred to as local government (Friend and Jessop, 2013).
This type of government includes the municipal as well as the county structures. Citizens have more access to the local government as compared to the federal government because they provide almost all that they need (Fukuyama, 2013).
Administration of local governments varies depending on a particular state but all their powers originate from the states in which they are located. Most of the local government officials such as mayors, city councils and commissioners amongst others are elected by the residents. There exists two categories of local governments according to the United States Census Bureau, General Purpose and Special Purpose (McDermott, 2010). The general purpose local governments constitute counties, municipalities which area is smaller, towns as well as townships.
County Government
County government is the administration of the county, parish or borough by the public and they form the biggest subdivision contained by a state. The main function of a county government is to administrate the laws given by the state since they do not have their own legislation, although they collect taxes (Friend and Jessop, 2013). The powers and responsibilities of a particular country are important in a particular area because the citizens get to have direct contact with the elected officials. The most important official is the county commissioner or supervisor. A town in each county serves as the capital where courts and offices are located. Other officials include county courts, constables, auditors, treasurers and sheriffs amongst others.
Municipalities
Municipalities is another type of local government which is the public administration of a town, township or a city (McDermott, 2010). Since municipalities vary greatly in size, their structures could be small or large. Municipalities run services such as parks and recreation, housing services, municipal courts as well as police. Township government is yet another type of local government which is established to serve areas that have no minimum population concentration. Township is administered by a yearly town meeting and they have three to five trustees of an elected board (Fukuyama, 2013). Some examples of townships are New England, Pennsylvania and New Jersey but others have similar functions to those of the municipalities. Special purpose local governments comprise of specific districts such as sewer as well as water districts in addition to school districts. Special districts provide one or only a limited number of functions. School districts, on the other hand, entail the independent school system.
Differences between City and County Government
The difference between city and county government is that a city can enact ordinances but the county government cannot (Friend and Jessop, 2013). In addition, a county government cannot provide utilities which are usually supplied by incorporated cities. Such utilities include sewer, water, electricity as well as natural gas among others. The most effective type of local government is the municipalities which incorporate cities, towns and villages that are represented by a council. Municipalities are effective because the council serves the purpose of delivery of services that interest the residents as well as organizations (Fukuyama, 2013). In addition, the council has the responsibility of listening to the thoughts of the residents as well as their concerns in order to create solutions to different challenges and concerns of the community. In addition, municipalities provide administration, emergency measures, policing, land use planning and other important services to the residents. Municipalities are therefore the most effective type of local governments.
References
Friend, J., " Jessop, N. (2013). Local Government and Strategic Choice (Routledge Revivals): An Operational Research Approach to the Processes of Public Planning. Routledge.
Fukuyama, F. (2013). What is governance?. Governance, 26(3).
McDermott, P. (2010). Building open government. Government Information Quarterly, 27(4).
