Having read the chapter, the students should be able to do each of the following:
Identify the branches of government most common in states and describe the development of state constitutions.
Examine how the various states apply the principle of separation of powers, and identify some of the differences in the way in which they structure their governments.
Note some of the trends in state electoral politics, party development, and strategies taken by state governments to either encourage or discourage participation.
Describe the four forms of municipal government.
Discuss the influence of political and economic constraints or advantages on state and local government policies.
Explain the primary sources of state finance and a state's areas of greatest expenditure.
Although developments in the twentieth century have narrowed the differences among the American states, they—and the localities that govern under their authority—remain distinctive and vital systems of government.
All states apply the constitutional principle of separate branches sharing power, but the structure of the state governments differs in some respects from that of the federal government. An example is the more widespread use of elections at the state level. Most states elect by popular vote their judges and a number of executives, including an attorney general and treasurer in addition to a governor. Through the initiative or the referendum, nearly all states also allow their residents to vote directly on policy issues.
Local governments are chartered by the state. They are not sovereign governments, but most states have chosen to grant local units a considerable level of policymaking discretion. Local governments include counties, municipalities, school districts, and special districts. Of these, the independent school district is the most distinctively American institution. The municipality is the primary governing unit. Municipalities are governed by one of four types of systems: the strong mayor-council system, the weak mayor-council system, the commission system, or the city manager system.
The states and localities have primary responsibility for most of the public policies that directly touch Americans' daily lives. For example, the major share of legislation devoted to public education and more than 90 percent of the funding for it are provided by the states and localities. Public welfare, public health, roads, and police are other policy areas dominated by these sub-national governments. They do not, however, have the amount of revenue that is available to the federal government. Competition between the states and localities holds down their taxing capacity. Their policies are also conditioned by the wealth of the state or locality and by the structure of its party and interest-group systems.
