| bicameral legislatures | Legislatures having two chambers.
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| charter | The chief instrument by which a state governs its local units; it spells out in detail what a local government can and cannot do.
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| city manager system | The form of municipal government that entrusts the executive role to a professionally trained manager, who is chosen, and can be fired, by the city council.
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| commission system | The form of municipal government that invests executive and legislative authority in a commission, with each commissioner serving as a member of the local council but also having a specified executive role, such as police commissioner or public works commissioner.
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| constitutional initiative | The process by which a citizen or group can petition to place a proposed amendment on the ballot at the next election by obtaining the signatures of a certain number of registered voters. If the amendment gets majority support, it becomes part of the constitution.
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| Cooley's rule | The term used to describe the idea that cities should be self-governing, articulated in an 1871 ruling by Michigan judge Thomas Cooley.
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| Dillon's rule | The term used to describe relations between state and local government; it holds that local governments are creatures of the state, which in theory even has the power to abolish them.
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| home rule | A device designed to give local governments more leeway in their policies; it allows a local government to design and amend its own charter, subject to the laws and constitution of the state and also subject to veto by the state.
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| initiative | The process by which citizens can place legislative measures on the ballot through signature petitions. If the measure receives a majority vote, it becomes law.
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| metropolitan government | The form of local government created when local governments join together and assign it responsibility for a range of activities, such as police and sanitation, so as to reduce the waste and duplication that results when every locality in a densely populated area provides its own services.
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| ordinances | Laws issued by a local government under authority granted by the state government.
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| police power | A term that refers to the broad power of government to regulate the health, safety, and morals of the citizenry.
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| recall | The process by which citizens can petition for the removal from office of an elected official before the scheduled completion of his or her term.
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| referendum | The process through which the legislature may submit proposals to the voters for approval or rejection.
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| state constitutional convention | A state convention convened to amend the state constitution or draft a new one.
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| strong mayor-council system | The most common form of municipal government, consisting of the mayor as chief executive and the local council as the legislative body, in which the mayor has veto power and a prescribed responsibility for budgetary and other policy actions.
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| weak mayor-council system | The form of municipal government in which the mayor's policymaking powers are less substantial than the council's; the mayor has no power to veto the council's actions and often has no formal role in such activities as budget making.
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