Local government

Local government, in the United States embraces a wide variety of governmental units, such as cities, counties, townships, and school districts. The average citizen comes into contact with local government quite often because it provides a variety of functions and services important in his daily life. These include garbage collection, police protection, education, firefighting, traffic regulation, street and road lighting, water supply and sewage control, public health and medical services, the recording of births, deaths, and marriages, and many others.

Municipal government includes the established authorities of cities, towns, and villages. The most common form is the mayor-council, of which the chief executive officer is a mayor elected on a partisan ballot. He generally has wide powers of administration and appointment, and may veto acts of the city council. The latter, also elected on a partisan ballot, raises funds for the municipality, and passes laws and by-laws. Many smaller cities have a council-manager system, in which an elected city council sets the broad outlines of policy and appoints a nonpartisan professional city manager to carry out the day-to-day administrative work. This system removes many government functions from the arena of politics.

County governments administer rural areas. They are usually headed by an elected board and include a number of other elected officials for specific functions such as sheriff, coroner, assessor, and clerk. Normally there is no one principal executive officer such as a mayor.