what is local government essay

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local government , authority to determine and execute measures within a restricted area inside and smaller than a whole state. Some degree of local government characterizes every country in the world, although the degree is extremely significant. The variant, local self-government, is important for its emphasis upon the freedom of the locality to decide and act.

There is more than a technical importance in the difference between the two terms, because they are related to the distinction sometimes drawn between deconcentration and decentralization . Local government is often, but not necessarily, related to the former; local self-government to the latter. These distinctions are important, even if they are blurred. Deconcentration broadly means that, for the sake of convenience, some functions have been devolved from a central government to administration on the spot. Power is still administered through officials appointed by and responsible to the centre, and authority and discretion are vested in the centre. On the other hand, decentralization represents local government in areas where the authority to decide has been devolved to a council of locally elected persons acting on their own discretion with officials they themselves freely appoint and discipline .

The term local self-government has been traditionally used of local government in the United Kingdom and Germany . Thus, the Basic Law (the constitution of Germany) says, “ Municipalities must be guaranteed the right to regulate all local affairs on their own responsibility, within the limits prescribed by the laws.” On the other hand, the amended constitution of the French Fifth Republic says, “In the conditions provided for by statute, these [local communities] shall be self-governing through elected councils and shall have power to make regulations for matters coming within their jurisdiction.” This expresses the spirit of deconcentration.

However tightly bound to the central office’s authority and regulations local officials may be, a degree of discretion is unavoidable. Often, again, the fairly pure organs of local self-government, such as the borough councils in the United Kingdom, are obliged to execute the purposes of the central government. Primarily units of local self-government, they are simultaneously units of local obligation acting as ordered by the central government for services such as education and policing.

Thus, modern local government has a twofold aspect—it is a mixture of both deconcentration and decentralization, of central convenience and an acknowledgment that not all authority ought to be exerted by the centre. The mixture is revealed by the extent to which some of the powers exercised by local government units are exercised compulsorily and under fairly strict control by central authority with financial assistance, while others are not. This mixture produces the high complexity of modern local government. Further, local government is a departmentalization of the state’s work, based on the territorial distribution of services, as contrasted with (1) division into departments at the centre or (2) decentralization of functions to public corporations. In local government, territorial distribution of power is the essence.

The history of local government in Western Europe, Great Britain, the United States , and Russia exhibits the growing awareness of its significance. This awareness is a product of a development of parochial and town life which began long before the modern state emerged between the 15th and 17th centuries. Any central control over these and other areas was, until the 18th century, rather scanty. Notable exceptions were France under Jean-Baptiste Colbert or 17th-century Prussia, where local authorities were already overlaid by the heavy hand of the central intendants in the former and the war commissariat in the latter. Many Germanic states, such as the Hanse towns, were nothing but cities . In England and especially New England , the local units—parishes, towns, and cities—emerged from their origins as spontaneous self-governing units. This was also the case in Russia, although there the tsars took strict control of the cities through their provincial governors and over the mir —the village-cum-agricultural unit—through taxes, the police, and the boyars . The state colonized some cities from the beginning. The various local units were gradually integrated by the state, which exacted obligations from them regarding peace, crime and police duties, taxes, military supplies, assistance to the poor, and highways. By ordinances or statutes or judicial decisions, local units were subordinated, so that the idea of an inherent right to self-government was extinguished. By the 19th century all local units had become legal creatures of the state, subsidiary in authority and acting independently by sufferance alone.

The local freedoms of the 19th century were challenged by (1) speed of communications, which reduced administrative time, (2) demands of a planned economy , (3) growth of nationwide political parties with social welfare programs uniform for all parts of the nation, (4) growth of a consciousness favouring a national minimum of services, (5) realization that the best technical administration of modern utilities requires areas knitted together by a central plan that differs from the traditional ones, and (6) needs of civil defense against air attack . These are powerful forces working against claims to purely self-regarding government. On the other hand, local freedom is supported by need for (1) intimate local knowledge and variation, (2) intensity of local interest and enlistment of loyalty and cooperation, (3) small areas for easy impact of the citizen-consumers upon officials-producers, (4) an accessible area of political education, (5) counterweight to the abuse of central power, and (6) the democratic value of a plurality of political experience and confidence. In all plans, decentralization, whether to a regional agency such as the Tennessee Valley Authority in the U.S. or to traditional units, is pressing, necessary, and fruitful.

State and Local Government Descriptive Essay

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The United States of America has three key levels of government. This paper discusses the land use planning process as a good illustration of Intergovernmental Relations and how they work. IGR defines or frames the relations between different departments or functional units in a government.

Intergovernmental relation is one of the major aspects of American federalism. America like any other country has strong and autonomous arms of government. Each arm of government or section of government has its own jurisdiction. The jurisdictions are well defined so that pertinent public issues are not misaddressed due to crossing of jurisdictional lines.

The relations between the local governments and the state illustrate precisely the extension of intergovernmental relations. To foster cohesive and mutually benefiting relationship between the federal and the local government, each of them has its own clearly delineated sphere of influence. However, although the spheres of influence are well outlined, they are paradoxically intertwined and connected in many ways.

Intergovernmental relations between the federal and the local government in the United States of America, focus on building mutual working relations. Mutual working relations are critical for the purpose of service delivery and fostering understanding between different levels of government structures. Fostering of mutual relations is done through negotiations, forums of information exchange that enable building of consensus around issues.

Not all levels of intergovernmental structures have been anchored in the constitution. However, the IGR mechanisms tend to evolve in response to the ever dynamic changes in the political atmosphere. Intergovernmental Relations have facilitated an array of services. The facilitation is enabled by communication channels between state and local governments.

Intergovernmental relations support proper functioning of state and local government by providing framework for comprehensive policy formulation in relation to say land usage or records modernization. Although issues to do with say land usage are dealt with at local government level, this is done in close liaison with the federal government. The federal government’s involvement concerns with general policy framework while the local governments remit a substantial share of taxes to the federal government to facilitate its operations.

One of the services that have been improved on at the local level because of intergovernmental relations is comprehensive planning. Comprehensive planning involves bringing together myriad aspects of the public sphere concerns and designing appropriate government responses.

It’s a method which helps communities to have information and policies that will help propel them to the desired future. A compressive local government plan contains a vision for the local community. The vision encapsulates the kind of society that is to be developed. To effectively carry out comprehensive planning at the local government level, a number of elements which are necessary have to be considered.

The Issue of equal opportunities for all is a major element in both local, state and central government’s comprehensive planning. For the federal government to plan properly, enough background information about the states and local counties has to be unearthed or analyzed.

The analysis establishes the position or major characteristics of each county and state in relation to others. The information about the local governments is retrieved from reports held by both the local and federal governments. Further, the local government’s comprehensive plan seeks to establish comparative facts i.e. position of local government unit in comparison with others. Such information is only attainable due to proper relations or interactions between federal government and local government.

Local governments (state and counties) derive their comprehensive plans from the federal or central government’s comprehensive plan. There are elements of the local government comprehensive plan that can only be developed in tandem with the federal compressive plans. This is because if the state, county and federal plans are not in synchrony, the operations of the two levels of government are paralyzed in a way.

Some of these elements include land use, population planning, housing related planning, and employment related planning. The comprehensive plan must state clearly the overall objectives, goals and programs to be undertaken by county governments and the role of the federal or state government in the same. It outlines the administrative structure as far as given public issues are concerned and serves as a guide to future development of the county (Crotty, 1991, p.69).

Land use is a major element that’s covered under comprehensive planning. IGR plays a critical role when it comes to land use because each level of government has a role to play towards proper land use. Land use planning involves formulation of policies by the federal government, in close consultation with the state and county governments, with the aim of ensuring proper use of land (Crotty, 1991, p.79).

The counties have a big role to play in land use management. Land is directly controlled by county governments. County governments execute land management with clear references to both general and specific guidelines by the respective state and federal government.

Land problems or issues differ from county to county. Due to difference in kind of issues or land problems at the local county levels, only county leadership is better placed at solving enforcing land related regulations. Therefore, county governments have the responsibilities of ensuring comprehensive plans that address local issues are in place. This is why state and federal plans are often general in nature.

The county plan should be specific and addressed to particular local characteristics or issues. The planners at the county level of governance, with proper reference to national policy and due consultation with relevant state authorities, arrive at derivations that address local needs (Crotty, 1991, p.80). The derivations that the counties come up with have to facilitate equitable use of land and making sure property is developed in an orderly way.

Conflicts are likely to occur if counties are not left to make the major decisions about land use. However, unless there are general guidelines from the state and federal government, other conflicts are likely to occur. For example, left alone or given total control, local county politics may jeopardize nationwide land use or resource use need and plans. Therefore, an inter-county approach that facilitates sharing of information between counties and involvement of both state and federal governments is very important.

The guidelines in place mandate states to prepare general land policies. A zoning approach is used to provide sort of county specific plans. However, the state plan only offers general guidelines that are referred to by the county governments in determining land use and resource management practice.

For the state and federal planning process to be meaningful, county representation in state and state representation in federal government planning process is crucial. State involvement in land issues is restricted to those lands that are of statewide interest. It involves directly in county land issues only but to safeguard statewide land interests. It also participates in land management by providing counties with enough funds that are used in safeguarding the state’s interest in the given county.

Just as the state gets involved in county affairs only to safeguard statewide interest so also does the federal government get involved in state and by extension county affairs to safeguard federal interests (Scott, 1971, p.87). Land use in a county has to be in line with general federal government policies.

The state policies should be derivations of the federal government policy but addressing local state issues. County comprehensive plans have to address local problems but take note or safeguard state interests. The federal government provides funding to support land and good resource management plans in states and by extension in the counties.

In conclusion, state and local governments have to work in synchrony for proper development and progress to be registered. When it comes to land use, the county governments understand the local characteristics better than the state and federal governments. The state involves itself in county land planning process to safeguard state interest in the county.

The federal government involves in county and state affairs to safeguard federal interests. Federal planning and state planning involves county stakeholders and the general public because acceptability of any plan depends on participation of all stakeholders.

Intergovernmental relations often necessitate the adoption of written protocols or procedures that augment mutual relations and full participation, in governance, by all relevant stakeholders (Wright, 1982, p.89).

Written procedures and protocols ensure proper consultations and report sharing processes for timely action by respective elements in nation’s governance system (Wright, 1982, p.94). As such, intergovernmental relations are an important element in governance that has to be well streamlined if governments are to be effective.

Reference List

Crotty W. J., (1991). Political Science: American Institutions. Illinois, IL: Northwestern University Press

Scott M., (1971). American City Planning Since 1890: a History Commemorating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the American Institute of Planner. California, CA: University of California Press

Wright, D. S., (1982). Understanding Intergovernmental Relations .California, CA: Brooks/Cole

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Item 1 - purpose and function of our government - general.

Published on Mon, May 17, 2021 9:00AM PDT | Updated Mon, May 17, 2021 9:10AM PDT

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The United States of America (US) is a federal republic composed of 50 states, a federal district of Washington, D.C., five major and various minor insular areas, as well as over 90,000 local governments, including counties, municipalities, townships, school districts, and special district governments. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 329 million people, the US is the world’s third-largest country by total area and the third most populous.

Our vision and mission

As documented in the US Constitution, the people of the US, through our Government, seek to form a more perfect union by establishing justice, ensuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare, and securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

Our strategy

To achieve the mission of the people, our Government raises money, spends money, and exercises its authority. Through these actions, it enables, incentivizes, and forces certain behaviors (e.g. saving for retirement through Social Security and Medicare, attending minimum years of school, getting vaccinated) in an effort to maintain or improve various key metrics related to American life.

Raising and spending money

Our Government raises money through taxes and non-tax sources, including businesses it runs. This money is used to pay government expenditures and to transfer money to individuals and others. At the federal level, when the money raised is not sufficient to cover the money spent (most years), the US Department of the Treasury may borrow money to finance the difference. States may borrow funds for projects but may not borrow to fund annual deficits, except Vermont, where its constitution does not preclude it from doing so.

Exercising authority

Our Government exercises its authority directly by regulating, legislating, and issuing executive orders and court orders. It also grants authority to, and rescinds it from, government agencies and state and local governments.

See more at Government operations below.

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About this report, government structure, explore the 2021 government 10-k, introduction, item 1a. risk factors, item 2. properties, item 3. legal proceedings, item 6. selected financial data, item 7. management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations, item 7a. quantitative and qualitative disclosures about market risk, item 8. financial statements and supplementary data, item 9a. controls and procedures, item 10. executive officers and governance, item 11. executive officer compensation, item 13. certain relationships and related transactions, and director independence, item 15. exhibits, sign up for the newsletter.

The importance of effective and efficient local governments

Local governments were designed with the purpose of creating order in ways that serve the general public democratically. The general public elects the leaders that they have the most faith in to run an effective local government . In electing leaders, the public gives these elected officials the power to do whatever is necessary to perform its functions and to achieve the municipality's objectives, including giving the officials the power to levy taxes on citizens. In exchange for their power, local citizens expect their government to be fair and to spend their tax dollars wisely and without waste. Citizens expect government workers to work as efficiently as possible so that their tax dollars are put to the best use. The evolution of board portals for effective local governments is the best and newest solution for bringing efficiency and effectiveness into homes and communities. >> See our Local Government Meeting & Agenda Management Software Buyer's Guide

Understanding the Purpose of Local Government

To best understand the importance of how to run an effective local government, it's important to trace back to under the original intents and purposes of local government. The purpose of local government is to provide an organized system where councils exercise their power and responsibilities to work together for peace, order and good governance of their municipal districts. As part of their duties, councilpersons are expected to work toward improving social, economic, and environmental viability and sustainability for the benefit of their district. Their duties also entail promoting appropriate business and employment opportunities for citizens. Effective local governments provide overall quality of life for the people who reside in their communities. Local councils are composed of board members or board trustees. The town clerk arranges for a public election to be held at various intervals where registered voters can vote democratically for their choice of public officials to represent them. The role of the councilpersons is to achieve the best outcomes for the local community with a focus on the long-term quality of life and continued community growth. Federal and state laws exist to provide protections for citizens. Disability laws ensure that the services and facilities provided by local government are accessible and equitable to everyone living within the community. While not all duties and responsibilities are defined at the local, state and federal levels, the public holds certain expectations for those they elect. Citizens expect that their elected officials will abide by laws and regulations. Beyond that, they expect that their officials will use their resources efficiently and effectively and in ways that provide the most value. Along those lines, citizens expect that the rates they get charged for services the government provides will be justified and reasonable. Citizens expect their elected officials to be accountable for their actions and decisions. Accountability considers that local citizens are entitled to the transparency of information, with the exception of information that is confidential.

The Connection Between Effectiveness and Efficiency

It's common to see the words 'effective' and 'efficient' together, even though they hold very different meanings. While the two words have starkly different definitions, they often go hand-in-hand. Effectiveness refers to the process of producing a desired intent or result, and it requires doing the right thing to make it happen. On the other hand, efficiency refers to preventing or minimizing wasting materials, energy, effort, money or time. We can further break down the word efficiency by categorizing it. Technical efficiency refers to doing the most or making the most of something. A common idiom that relates to technical efficiency is 'getting the most bang for your buck.' Allocative efficiency refers to using resources that produce the highest value. A good example of allocative efficiency is opening up a coffee shop near a train station. This type of business is attractive and convenient for commuters who enjoy grabbing a cup of coffee during their morning commute. The new coffee shop also receives a boost for the business as the traffic from the trains will help them to become profitable quickly. Dynamic efficiency refers to better and easier ways of doing the same thing. A board portal system by iCompass, a Diligent brand, provides a perfect example of how local government boards can work more effectively and efficiently.

Expectations for Efficiency and Effectiveness in the Role of the Council

In addition to having legal responsibilities for ensuring good governance, council members must consider the health and welfare of the citizens they represent. Council members must effectively serve as representatives of the community, which considers that they must fairly account for the diverse needs of the community when making council decisions. Effective council members encourage their constituents to be actively engaged in civic matters and to foster cohesion among members of the community. Each member of the council is responsible for working as part of a team to establish strategic objectives and monitor progress toward achieving them. Transparency is a necessary component for ensuring that the council manages the government's resources responsibly. Citizens hold the council members and local governments accountable for carrying out their duties as efficiently and effectively as possible. Local governments are part of larger communities. In this role, council members should advocate for the interests of their local community to other local governments and communities. Along those lines, effective council members are responsible partners in government when they also take the needs of neighboring communities into account. Some of the duties that council members perform with effectiveness and efficiency in mind include:

• Developing proposals that are clearly in the community's best interests
• Planning and providing services and facilities for local citizens' use
• Building and strengthening the community's infrastructure
• Making strategic plans for land use
• Raising revenue to enable the council members to perform their duties
• Creating, passing and enforcing local laws
• Fulfilling their duties and functions to the best of their ability
• Not abusing their powers
• Performing other functions related to peace, order and good governance

Board Portal Technology Supports Effective Local Government

While it's important for council members to reduce spending wherever it makes sense, sometimes it makes sense to invest money to acquire greater savings in costs and labor through more efficient operations. Investing in board portal technology creates efficiency and effectiveness in many different ways. iCompass, a Diligent brand, board portals streamline meeting procedures, which creates efficiency. Electronic processes for online document storage, agenda creation and minutes creation support such good governance principles as accountability and transparency. Video recordings provide accountability. In addition, video recordings offer convenience for citizens who wish to view them in real time or watch them later online. Automated task reminders create efficiency, as iCompass's board portal continually nudges council members to address their responsibilities. In essence, an iCompass board portal offers multiple ways for council members to create efficiency and effectiveness. The benefits of efficiency and effectiveness far outweigh the costs of investing in a board portal system for local governments.

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Local Government Essays

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If you are a teacher searching for essay topics to assign to your U.S. government or civics class or looking for ideas, do not fret. It is easy to integrate debates and discussions into the classroom environment. These topic suggestions provide a wealth of ideas for written assignments such as  position papers , compare-and-contrast essays , and  argumentative essays . Scan the following 25 question topics and ideas to find just the right one. You'll soon be reading interesting papers from your students after they grapple with these challenging and important issues.

• Compare and contrast what is a direct democracy versus representative democracy. 
• React to the following statement: Democratic decision-making should be extended to all areas of life including schools, the workplace, and the government. 
• Compare and contrast the Virginia and New Jersey plans. Explain how these led to the Great Compromise .
• Pick one thing about the U.S. Constitution including its amendments that you think should be changed. What modifications would you make? Explain your reasons for making this change.
• What did Thomas Jefferson mean when he said, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants?" Do you think that this statement still applies to today's world? 
• Compare and contrast mandates and conditions of aid regarding the federal government's relationship with states. For example, how has the Federal Emergency Management Agency delivered support to states and commonwealths that have experienced natural disasters?
• Should individual states have more or less power compared to the federal government when implementing laws dealing with topics such as the legalization of marijuana  and abortion ? 
• Outline a program that would get more people to vote in presidential elections or local elections.
• What are the dangers of gerrymandering when it comes to voting and presidential elections?
• Compare and contrast the major political parties in the United States. What policies are they preparing for upcoming elections?
• Why would voters choose to vote for a third party, even though they know that their candidate has virtually no chance of winning? 
• Describe the major sources of money that are donated to political campaigns. Check out the Federal Election Regulatory Commission's website for information.
• Should corporations be treated as individuals regarding being allowed to donate to political campaigns?  Look at the 2010 Citizens United v. FEC ruling on the issue. Defend your answer. 
• Explain the role of social media in connecting interest groups that have grown stronger as the major political parties have grown weaker. 
• Explain why the media has been called the fourth branch of government. Include your opinion on whether this is an accurate portrayal.
• Compare and contrast the campaigns of U.S. Senate and House of Representatives candidates.
• Should term limits be instituted for members of Congress? Explain your answer.
• Should members of Congress vote their conscience or follow the will of the people who elected them into office? Explain your answer.
• Explain how executive orders have been used by presidents throughout the history of the U.S. What is the number of executive orders issued by the current president?
• In your opinion, which of the three branches of the federal government has the most power? Defend your answer.
• Which of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment do you consider the most important? Explain your answer. 
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Are you prepared to ignite change in your community? ICMA is on the lookout for innovators and visionaries with groundbreaking ideas for the future of local government. We're excited to announce that handpicked essays will be showcased in our forthcoming publication, "Future Proofing Local Government: Strategies for Sustainable Innovation."

Our aim is to spotlight these essays so that local government managers can explore inventive approaches to modernize and future-proof their organizations. Hence, we're seeking essays that are thought-provoking, audacious, and resonate with one of our five Local Government Reimagined themes.

Anyone can submit an essay topic! Do you have a bold idea that could transform local governance? We want to hear it!

How might local governments reimagine public spaces to foster community connection and well-being in an increasingly digital age? What unconventional methods can local governments employ to promote environmental sustainability and resilience within their communities?

Submit your audacious essays or essay topics by April 5, 2024, and not only will you shape the future, but selected authors will also receive a $1,000 honorarium for their remarkable contributions. Your essays will take center stage in "Future Proofing Local Government," amplifying your ideas to inspire others to think boldly. Learn more at the website . Questions? Contact Kaelan Boyd, senior program manager, at [email protected] .

Don't let this opportunity pass to challenge norms, stretch boundaries, and establish a more responsive and equitable system. Together, let's pave the way for a brighter tomorrow!

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State and Local Government

From the Founding ge

Lesson Components

Guiding Questions

• What is a federal republic and what are the advantages of this form of government?
• Why is a pure democracy potentially dangerous to the rights of the minority?
• What is nullification, what were its results, and what are its implications for modern times?
• Students will explain why the Founders selected a federal republic as the best form of government.
• Students will analyze causes and effects of the Nullification Crisis.

Expand Materials Materials

Educator Resources

• Handout A: What Is a Federal Republic? Answer Key
• Handout C: James Madison and Federalism – Excerpts from Federalist No. 39 Answer Key

Student Handouts

• State and Local Government Essay

Handout A: What Is a Federal Republic?

Handout b: patrick henry at the virginia ratifying convention.

• Handout C: James Madison and Federalism – Excerpts from Federalist No. 39
• Handout E: Federalist No. 26
• Handout F: South Carolina Ordinance
• Handout G: President Jackson’s Proclamation

Students will need blue, yellow, and green highlighters or map colors for Activity 2, Federalist No. 39.

Expand Key Terms Key Terms

• Articles of Confederation
• Electoral College
• James Madison
• Constitution
• Fourteenth Amendment
• Thomas Jefferson
• Continental Congress
• Alexander Hamilton
• Tenth Amendment

Expand Prework Prework

Have students read the State and Local Government Essay , highlighting or otherwise annotating the main ideas.

Expand Warmup Warmup

Have students use a Think-Pair-Share process to respond to this question: Should states be able to declare federal laws unconstitutional?

Expand Activities Activities

Activity 1: What is a Federal Republic? [25 minutes]

Have students read Handout A: What Is a Federal Republic? Instruct students to answer the questions at the end of the essay.

Hand each student a copy of the Patrick Henry quotation on Handout B: Patrick Henry at the Virginia Ratifying Convention . Ask one student to stand up and read the quotation aloud. Ask students to put Henry’s concerns in their own words.

Activity 2: Federalist No. 39 [15 minutes]

Divide students into small groups and distribute Handout C: James Madison and Federalism – Excerpts from Federalist No. 39 . Have students follow the directions on the handout regarding Madison’s explanations of the national and federal nature of the Constitution. After students have completed it, lead the class in a discussion of the questions.

Activity 3: Nullification [40 minutes]

Give a mini-lecture on the background of the Nullification Crisis relating to the Tariff of 1828, South Carolina’s nullification of the law, Jackson’s response, and how it affected the United States leading up to the Civil War.

Have students work in small groups using information from Handout E: Federalist No. 26 , Handout F: South Carolina Ordinance , and Handout G: President Jackson’s Proclamation to study the Nullification Crisis and answer the following questions:

• What is nullification?
• What was the Tariff of 1828?
• Why did South Carolina disagree with the Tariff of 1828?
• What was President Jackson’s response to South Carolina?
• What would the Founders have thought about the Nullification Crisis? Would Federalists and Anti-Federalists have differing opinions on the topic? Explain.
• What were the long-term effects of the Nullification Crisis?
• What, if any, modern day implications does nullification have?

Expand Wrap Up Wrap Up

Ask work groups to share their responses to the final question: What, if any, modern day implications does nullification have?

Expand Homework Homework

Have students search current events articles (see https://billofrightsinstitute.org/current-events ) to find examples of controversies between the levels of government in our federal system: local/state, state/national, local/national

Have students report in the next class, explaining who, what, when, where, where, why, how, results.

Essay: State and Local Government

Primary source: james madison and federalism – excerpts from federalist no. 39, primary source: federalist no. 26, primary source: south carolina ordinance, primary source: president jackson’s proclamation.

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This Homework Help narrative explores the history of the Founding of the U.S. and the reasons why federalism was created as an important part of our constitutional system. The video challenges viewers to consider this question: why we have a system with local, state, and federal laws?

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Devolution may be sexier, but updating the local government finance system is vital

• David Phillips

Published on 3 September 2024

Any plans for devolution need to be accompanied by updates to English councils’ hideously outdated funding allocations.

• Government finances and spending
• Government spending
• Local government finance
• Property taxes

Ten days into her job, the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner wrote to local government leaders  promising ‘the most ambitious programme of devolution this country [England] has ever seen’. The new government plans to devolve powers over, and funding for, transport, skills, housing, planning and employment support, that some of the mayors of combined authorities have, to more areas of England. It also plans for more areas to receive funding for such responsibilities via a ‘single pot’ that they are free to allocate as they see fit, rather than use a plethora of ring-fenced grants as is now usually the case. More generally, all councils will benefit from multi-year as opposed to single-year funding settlements.

These plans can be described as ambitious only in the context of England’s highly centralised governance arrangements: local governments in other large, developed economies often have more flexibility over spending and particularly revenue than their English counterparts. But they are a start. And a growing number of voices are calling for the devolution of additional revenue streams to accompany these changes on the spending side of the budget. These include voices within local government (such as the Northern Powerhouse and London Finance Commission ) and think tanks (such as the Centre for Cities and LGIU ).

The aims of devolution are both democratic and economic. Greater local autonomy can allow councils to better reflect the preferences and needs of local residents, if their greater proximity to local residents means they better understand those preferences and needs, and given they are accountable specifically to local voters. Some also argue that better decision-making, the ability to join up services locally, and the stronger financial incentives for growth that fiscal devolution can bring may improve services and boost economic performance. Both the government and others cite cross-country research by the OECD  which shows that greater decentralisation of tax and spending is associated with higher levels of national income and potentially lower inequality between places. However, as the Institute for Government has noted ,  the evidence is actually fairly mixed and suggests that impacts depend crucially on what is devolved, to what places, and the funding and redistribution arrangements that accompany devolution. 

Why funding reform matters too – and why it should come first

In the excitement about devolution, it is therefore important not to forget another big issue facing England: the lack of a proper system for allocating funding between councils, which means the amount of funding different councils receive is now essentially arbitrary. This follows ill-advised changes in the late 2000s, designed to obfuscate rather than illuminate the distributional choices being made by the government, and the ending of annual assessments of councils’ spending needs and revenue-raising capacities in 2013. As recent research at IFS has shown , this has resulted in big discrepancies between assessments of the funding different areas need and the amount they actually receive. Population has grown over 15% in 19 council areas while falling in 11 others since 2013 – something which has not been properly accounted for. Poor areas, in particular, lose out, with councils in the most deprived fifth of areas in England receiving a share of funding that is 10% below updated assessments of their share of needs, while the least deprived receive a share that is 13% higher, as shown in Figure 1. Current funding allocations are therefore helping entrench rather than tackle inequalities in health, well-being and life chances across England.

Figure 1. Gap between councils’ estimated share of funding and share of assessed spending needs if all councils set the average Band D tax rate, 2022–23

Source: Appendix figure B.25, Ogden, Phillips and Warner (2023) . 

This situation also means funding is less predictable for councils, with the allocation of funding between councils being decided on a year-by-year, ad-hoc basis by the government, rather than determined by a set of well-articulated principles and rules – although in some years the government has just chosen to roll over the previous year’s funding, this cannot be taken for granted. Uncertainty about future funding makes it more difficult to plan investment and service delivery, with potential adverse impacts on performance and value-for-money. 

Ploughing ahead with substantial devolution, particularly of major new sources of revenue, without addressing these problems risks entrenching them and undermining some of the purported benefits of devolution. It is likely to be even more politically difficult to redistribute newly-devolved revenue streams that councils come to see as their own – especially if such redistribution has not been foreshadowed at the outset – than to redistribute councils’ existing funding sources. 

In addition, reaping the full rewards of devolution will depend on the capacity of local councils to take on any additional powers and responsibilities. Research finds that the potential benefits of devolution are unlikely to be realised if the local government units to which powers are devolved are not funded sufficiently to deliver what is asked of them. Given that existing assessments of spending needs suggest deprived areas are currently relatively underfunded for their existing responsibilities, devolution without funding reform risks further increasing rather than reducing geographical inequalities.

An effective system of redistribution that is at least partially updated to account for changes in needs and revenue-raising capacities over time can also help reduce incentives for potentially damaging tax competition between areas as they compete for mobile tax bases (the choice of what revenue streams to devolve is also important here).  

Putting in place a system to update councils’ funding to account for differences in and changes in their needs and revenue-raising capacities is therefore an important accompaniment or precursor to substantial further devolution, especially of additional revenue streams.    

Could packaging with devolution finally unblock funding reform?

The lack of an effective system in England for allocating funding between councils has long been known, with a recent call for action by the House of Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee echoing the findings of inquiries from 2020 and 2019 . At IFS, our recent reports follow on from earlier analysis of the issues and potential solutions in 2015 , 2016 , 2018 and 2019 . Indeed, under the Cameron and May Conservative governments, significant progress was made in updating spending needs assessments and designing a new system of redistribution, in consultation with the local government sector : the so-called ‘Fair Funding Review’. But no resulting changes have been implemented. With the problems known, potential solutions identified and a fair chunk of the technical work done, why has the current unsatisfactory situation been allowed to persist? 

In part, events. First, Brexit undoubtedly reduced the bandwidth of the May administration to push other policies forward. Second, the COVID-19 pandemic meant that delaying reforms at that stage due to take effect in April 2021 almost certainly did make sense: the government and councils had a lot of other challenges on their plates. But key too is the political difficulty of redistributing funding between areas, creating losers as well as winners. Put simply, the losers are likely to make more noise than the winners, especially if overall funding levels are tightly constrained, making the losses more painful, and even the winners feel like they are still struggling to meet spending pressures. Such reasoning may explain why following the pandemic, the last government kicked reform into the post-election long grass for the next government to deal with. 

The political challenges will not have gone away, especially given the tricky fiscal outlook. But a new government, with a large majority in Parliament, and a clearly stated intention to take ‘tough decisions’ on the public finances, may be the best placed to deliver much-needed change to the way councils are funded. Packaging reforms to funding allocations along with the devolution of additional powers and revenue sources to local government would also give councils more flexibility to respond to any changes in their funding. In other words, not only is updating the system for allocating funding an important precursor to substantial further devolution but, if properly coordinated, devolution may also make such an update easier to finally implement. 

A truly ambitious government could go further still, by throwing changes to England’s property taxes, which are also ripe for reform, into the mix. This could include a revalued and less-regressive council tax, a reformed system of business property tax which does not penalise investment, and reducing or ideally abolishing stamp duty land tax. The Welsh Labour government has just legislated for regular council tax revaluations in Wales , and the UK Labour party has long promised to replace the existing business rates system .

Alongside a new way of funding local government, such a package could empower local decision-makers, help tackle geographical inequalities, free up the housing market and encourage investment, and in turn boost growth. But funding (and tax) reform as well as devolution is key to this ‘grand bargain’. Indeed, putting in place a proper system for allocating funding between councils is an important first step for such a plan – not least because major changes to council tax and business rates will inevitably change councils’ revenue-raising capacities in different ways. Other funding will need to be redistributed to areas seeing lower tax bills and taxbases. Reform of the council funding system therefore should not be delayed until the full details of any tax reforms are decided – work should begin now. 

The next step is to agree the principles of reform

With the aforementioned work undertaken by the Cameron and May governments, the new government does not need to start from scratch when it comes to reforming the way councils’ funding is allocated – although some updates to work now six or more years old is probably sensible. But it does need to work out what it is trying to achieve with devolution and funding reform, including how it wishes to balance sometimes competing objectives.

IFS researchers will discuss the issues and options for both a new system to allocate funding between councils and devolution in depth in a forthcoming IFS report, to be published this autumn (2024) and funded by the Health Foundation. Our report will emphasise that there is not one single best way forward for either funding allocations or devolution: the best approach depends on how different legitimate objectives – such as local discretion and financial accountability, versus national standards and equity – are balanced. Our analysis will be guided by the importance of two factors though: flexibility and transparency. 

Flexibility in any future system is important as different governments may make different trade-offs between objectives, and it would be useful if these could be accommodated within the broad system adopted going forwards. Recalibration is preferable to wholesale reform every few years. A new system should also be able to accommodate revaluations and reforms to local taxes that may necessitate updates to how other funding is allocated. Transparency is important so that the trade-offs governments are making are clear and can be subjected to proper scrutiny. 

Both these factors suggest a role for grant-funding or clearly labelled transfers between councils (such as the tariffs and top-ups that operate in the business rates retention scheme) as the main way to redistribute between councils. In contrast, some other suggestions, such as undertaking redistribution through allowing councils in different parts of the country to retain different proportions of local tax revenues, are likely to be both less flexible and less transparent. The government should avoid these.     

Using the Spending Review process to drive progress

The government should coordinate its work on these issues with the Spending Review process. This cannot get into the detail of how funding is allocated between councils, but it will provide a funding envelope for local government as a whole. And it provides an opportunity for the government to set its direction of travel on local government funding reform, devolution and potentially the property tax system.

It is likely too late to agree the full set of changes to councils’ funding before 2025–26, so instead the government should aim to start rolling out funding reforms and potential devolution arrangements from 2026–27 onwards. This is the first year of a planned multi-year cross-government Spending Review and potentially the first year of multi-year funding settlements for councils too (the 2025–26 Spending Review is planned as a one-year stopgap). 

If the government wanted to consult on reforms next summer in advance of rolling them out from 2026–27, this gives it approximately nine months to develop more detailed plans, building on work done by previous administrations and inputs from the local government sector and other stakeholders. IFS researchers will update the IFS–CIPFA Local Government Finance Model to look at the potential long-term impacts of any proposals the government does bring forward.

Lots of work to do then. Civil servants (and IFS researchers) will need to crunch the numbers. Councils and other stakeholders will need to consider the proposals and provide their feedback. And Ministers will need to make the final calls on inevitably tricky questions. Time to get cracking.      

Associate Director

David is Head of Devolved and Local Government Finance. He also works on tax in developing countries as part of our TaxDev centre.

Comment details

Suggested citation.

Phillips, D. (2024). Devolution may be sexier, but updating the local government finance system is vital [Comment] Institute for Fiscal Studies. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/articles/devolution-may-be-sexier-updating-local-government-finance-system-vital (accessed: 4 September 2024).

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The local impact of Donald Trump: "They reshaped government in the MAGA image — and it caused chaos"

In "chaos comes calling," sasha abramsky shows how ugly national politics hurt local communities — and how to heal, by amanda marcotte.

From the presidential election to the insurrection at the Capitol, Donald Trump and the MAGA movement are usually portrayed as a national news story. But the impact it's had on local politics is just as serious — and often quite devastating. Taking advantage of the low turnout at local elections, QAnoners, election deniers, and anti-vaccination extremists have been able to gain power on city councils and school boards, where they often proceed to wreak havoc on the local community. 

In " Chaos Comes Calling: The Battle Against the Far-Right Takeover of Small-Town America, " journalist Sasha Abramsky documents how two rural communities in the Pacific Northwest were overwhelmed by far-right radicals. It's a sobering story, but also one that offers hope. Concerned citizens in Clallam County, Washington, beat back the MAGA menace, offering a model for others looking to protect their communities, whether their immediate town or the nation. Abramsky spoke with Salon about his work and why it matters for the future. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.  

What communities did you decide to follow for this book, and why?

The book is focused mainly on two communities in the Northwest. One is in the far north of California, called Shasta County. The other one is on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington and the county is Clallam, where I focused on a small town called Sequim. They both had an extraordinary lurch rightward that gathered pace during the pandemic. Shasta County had long been right-wing, with a militia presence and the idea of seceding from the rest of California. Then the pandemic debates over social distancing and school closures and then the vaccines turbocharged everything. There was this purge, where moderate Republicans who had been in charge of the county beforehand lost out to the hard-right: Republicans who were aligned with the militia movement, who were spouting QAnon theories and who were very involved in the MAGA movement.

"No democracy can survive that much anger over a prolonged period. For the sake of survival, we have to work out a more civil discourse."

Sequim was historically a fairly liberal place but had low voter participation for local elections. So an organized hard-right seized power, simply because people weren't paying attention. In the pandemic era, the city government was taken over by somebody who was using city time and city resources to promote QAnon. It triggered a good governance backlash, where locals organized and pushed back successfully against QAnon and MAGA.

If you look at what happened in Shasta and you look at what happened in Clallam County, they provide a study of contrast, which has huge implications for our national story. A we going to be able to organize nationally, to push back against the MAGA movement? Or is the MAGA movement ascendant? It was a window into a much bigger story that was occurring nationally.

Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics? Subscribe to her newsletter Standing Room Only .

Even though these stories go in different directions, I was struck by a similarity: the dramatic emotional impact on the people these stories, because of their community tearing itself apart.

What happens when local communities get into this kind of political battle is neighbors turning against neighbors. It gets very bitter, very quickly. People on the left get embittered by people on the right. People on the right get embittered by people on the left. The room for a conversation disappears.

I was interviewing people on the left. I was interviewing people on the right. I was interviewing militia members. I have voices from across the community. And what I wanted to do was tell their stories in a complex way. I didn't want to reduce anyone to a caricature, because that defeats the objective. With what happened around the pandemic with the schools closing, with businesses shuttering, with the economic and social dislocation, I have sympathy with people on all sides, even those I disagree with. This was one of those issues that tore the country apart. It injected both irrational and rational anger into our politics. And it's still playing out today.

You can't understand the story I'm trying to tell without understanding three things. One of them was the rise of social media, which turbocharged the politics of rumor. The second thing was the rise of Donald Trump, which was intimately linked with the rise of social media. He injected a vast amount of anger into the politics of the country. The third thing was the pandemic, which just tore everybody apart, tore communities apart. I want people to understand the dislocation that was occurring and that still is occurring, not just at the national level, but on Main Street. Unless you understand that, it's impossible to navigate a way forward. And there has to be a way forward because the current moment is so dysfunctional. No democracy can survive that much anger over a prolonged period. For the sake of survival, we have to work out a more civil discourse.

A lot of us experience Trumpism and the MAGA movement as a national story. In these particular communities, it was felt on this granular local level. Why has this national story become such a localized phenomenon in some places?

Pragmatism used to define local politics: getting roads built, filling in potholes, making sure kids had safe spaces on the way to school. All of that local pragmatic politics got swamped by the sheer rage of the national discourse. But it goes the other way, too. The more local politics came to be defined by these increasingly angry battles, the more it played into a national narrative.  A local story would be picked up by someone like Tucker Carlson, who would use it to whip up rage. Not just nationally, but because of social media, it would be picked up internationally.

One of the public health doctors that I focus on is a young woman named Alison Berry who was the public health officer for Clallam County. She was effective and smart. She came to grips with the local pandemic. When the state reopened for business, she noticed that there were these huge spikes in infections and that the spikes in infections were concentrated around bars and restaurants. And so she came up with this idea to impose a temporary vaccine mandate to sit indoors at a restaurant or a bar. Very rapidly the infection rates went down. It was a public health success, but it aroused a tremendous local backlash. Because of social media, the opponents were able to coordinate with people all over the world. And so Alison Berry, this anonymous, local public health official, suddenly was getting death threats from 10,000 miles away. You had the local anger. And then you had it amplified on bigger channels like Fox News. And then you had it amplified even more on social media. This is a toxic environment. Unless we get a handle on these technologies, unless we learn to use social media more responsibly, we're heading into a dark period where rumor replaces fact and that makes democracy extremely hard to function.

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You retell a story from Forks, Washington , where rumors that "antifa" was coming to town got whipped up in 2020. An innocent family was threatened. What were people thinking, that they were ready to believe antifa was invading their small town?

You have to put yourself back in the mindset of the summer of 2020. We're in the depths of the pandemic. People have been socially isolating for months. People are dying every day by the thousands. So there was this terror of outsiders anyway. On top of that, you had the George Floyd protests, where all of this pent-up anger and frustration poured out onto the streets. And in small towns, there was a barrier mindset. People felt, "We've got to stop outsiders from coming in because we don't know who they are or where they're coming from or what their motives are."

In small towns around the country, these rumors took off that the big city anarchists were coming into the small communities to burn them down. Racial rumors started that people were coming to attack white folk. On the Olympic Peninsula, a few days into the protests, a rumor starts that a white school bus is going to come into town filled with people who are "antifa." And they're going to burn the local communities down. Unfortunately, this mixed-race family comes in looking only to camp and to escape from the pandemic a little bit in the woods. They get stopped by locals who are terrified that they are "antifa." They're followed into the woods by dozens of mainly young men on all-terrain vehicles with guns, in an incredibly remote part of the country. There's all the potential for a complete tragedy. There's all the potential for a lynching. Now it does get diffused in the end, after the sheriffs come in and convince the young guys to go home. But this family was at risk of serious physical harm because of this uncontrolled rumor mill. 

It's tempting for many to believe this stuff is in the past, especially after the pandemic. But Donald Trump is seeding the idea that Democrats are gonna steal the 2024 election. He's signaling to local election officials that they need to interfere in the November election. 

Donald Trump has fashioned a cultist political movement entirely around his personality and his rhetoric. Much of the Republican Party has been reduced to a one-man political cult. There's a warping of the idea of truth. There's a collapse of the idea that there is such a thing as an objective reality. Whatever Trump says goes. He can say one thing on Monday, he can say the exact opposite thing on Tuesday. In the minds of his followers, both things hold so. Trump's priming his followers for another election lie when he loses in November. 

The case in point at the moment is Georgia, where the board of elections has been completely hijacked by a MAGA majority. Members of the board of elections are attending Donald Trump rallies, and Trump personally calls them out as heroes. They're already putting in place Election Day machinery where they can allow local counties and to avoid or delay certification. As far as I can tell, the idea Trump and his acolytes can sow enough chaos and enough distrust in the political system, and then just completely lock up the process. The Hail Mary is to throw it to the House of Representatives, which could produce a Republican president.

Now, I don't think that's going to happen. If Trump continues on the self-destructive path he's gone down over the last few weeks, there's a pretty good chance that he will lose so comprehensively that even the MAGA acolytes can't sow chaos to delay that. But it's hugely worrying that four years after the January 6 insurrection, the same man who prompted that insurrection is willing to try the same trick again in 2025 if he loses. I hope that people read the book and they realize that this is a story of our moment. This isn't a story of distant history. It's very much an ongoing story of our moment.

These two communities you write about had very different trajectories. What did you learn from this? How can we use this lesson to heal our larger national dysfunction? 

In Clallam County, they set up what they called the Sequim Good Government League. They made sure it included a lot of Democrats, Republicans and independents. They fielded candidates who took on local figures who had embraced QAnon, including the mayor. They explained to the public just how dangerous this kind of ideology was. Over the course of two election cycles, they basically recaptured all of those spots in city government, on the council, and on school boards. There were some pretty conservative Republicans, and there were pretty liberal Democrats. But they agreed about the necessity of restoring local democracy. That worked very effectively. There wasn't the equivalent in Shasta County. Over the last few months, it's gotten better, but for years the vacuum was filled by the hard-right. The right gained control over the border county supervisors, they gained control over local school boards and they pushed this increasingly fringe agenda. They fired the public health officer. They fired the people who were in charge of county health services. They reshaped government in the MAGA image, and it caused chaos. It caused budgeting dysfunction. It caused tremendous upheavals in the provision of services.

Whatever one thought of the MAGA identity, it didn't work as a way to govern locally. The lesson here is when a community starts lurching far to the right, the most important thing is to organize and push back against that. Educate people. Knock on doors. Explain to people at community meetings just why this is a bad idea to let a local community slide into far-right chaos.

In Shasta, it's taken a long time, but belatedly, there is now pushback. The epicenter of this hard right revolt was a man named Patrick Jones. And Patrick Jones was recently defeated in this spring's primary election . Even in a place as right-wing as Shasta County, a critical mass of people did ultimately realize that this just isn't a good road to go down. The ultimate lesson here is that when people pay attention, most Americans just do not want to go down this road. It's ugly and it's dysfunctional and it promises nothing but chaos and upheaval.

from Amanda Marcotte

• Trump’s getting desperate: Now he turns to failing Moms for Liberty
• The tragedy of MAGA's conspiracy theory about Tim Walz's "fake" dog
• Donald Trump's embrace of RFK Jr. exposes the campaign's QAnon strategy

Amanda Marcotte is a senior politics writer at Salon and the author of " Troll Nation: How The Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters Set On Rat-F*cking Liberals, America, and Truth Itself ." Follow her on Twitter  @AmandaMarcotte  and sign up for her biweekly politics newsletter, Standing Room Only .

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Early voting opens Saturday 7 September for 2024 NSW Local Government elections

The 2024 NSW Local Government elections are on Saturday 14 September 2024 and voting is compulsory for all of those who are eligible. If you can't get to a polling place on election day, you may be eligible to vote early. To find out if you're eligible, click here. Pre-poll voting is available from Saturday 7 September to Friday 13 September 2024 (excluding Sunday 8 September) at the following locations:

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