City government manages the affairs of and provides services for cities, towns, villages, and other communities. Communities with their own government are known as municipalities, and city government is also called municipal government.
About 65 percent of the people of the United States live in municipalities. The municipal governments provide a variety of services for residents. These services include police and fire protection, recreational facilities, street maintenance, and health and welfare services. Most of the states grant cities home rule. That is, the cities may, within the general laws of the state, adopt their own charter (form of organization) and have considerable freedom in local matters.
The United States has about 20,000 incorporated municipalities. An incorporated municipality is a corporation under the law and has a charter from the state defining its powers, responsibilities, and organization. Illinois leads the states with about 1,300. Hawaii, on the other hand, has no incorporated cities. All of the cities and towns in Hawaii are governed as part of the county in which they are located. Nevada, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island have fewer than 20 incorporated municipalities each.
Municipalities vary greatly in size. The largest municipality in the United States is New York City, which had about 9 million people in the 2020 U.S. census. The smallest municipalities may have fewer than 100 residents.
All municipal governments perform similar functions and have similar organization. These governments are the principal providers of such services as police and fire protection, sanitation, water supply, and public health programs.
City governments are organized into three branches: (1) legislative, (2) executive, and (3) judicial. Legislative responsibilities are carried out by a lawmaking body called the city council, sometimes known as the board of aldermen or city commission. The council makes laws for the city in the form of municipal ordinances. The executive branch is headed by the mayor or city manager, who administers the city government and coordinates its public services. Courts, which make up the judicial branch, try people accused of violating municipal ordinances. They also deal with civil cases that involve settlements of limited amounts of money. In small municipalities that do not have their own courts, county or district courts handle most cases.
For information on city and other local governments, see the article on Local government. To learn about city government in Canada, see the section on Local government in each province article in World Book.
Forms of city government
There are two major forms of city government in the United States: the mayor-council form and the council-manager form. A small and steadily decreasing number of cities use a third type of government called the commission form.
The mayor-council form
is the oldest type of city government in the United States. The first city governments in the American Colonies were patterned after those in England. They had a council, which was the chief organ of government, and a mayor, who was a member of the council and presided over it.
Under most mayor-council systems today, the mayor operates from a separate office and is not a member of the council. The people elect both the mayor and the council. About one-third of the cities in the United States with populations of 25,000 or more have the mayor-council system.
There are two main types of mayor-council government: (1) the weak-mayor system and (2) the strong-mayor system. The weak-mayor system developed in the late 1700’s and is the most popular type of government in small cities. The strong-mayor system developed in the late 1800’s and is especially popular in large cities.
The weak-mayor system
gives the mayor only limited executive authority. The council, on the other hand, has executive as well as legislative powers. In most cities, the mayor does not prepare the city budget and has little veto power over council decisions. In the weak-mayor system, the mayor appoints few, if any, of the city’s top administrative officials, and these appointments may be subject to the approval of the council. Other top officials are chosen by the city council, the voters, or independent boards and commissions.
The chief criticism of the weak-mayor system is that responsibility is not centralized but divided among many officials. The mayor does not have a voice in selecting many department heads and consequently has difficulty coordinating the administration of city services. However, some people favor such decentralization of authority because they fear too much power vested in a single individual.
The strong-mayor system
gives the mayor broad powers. The mayor can appoint and dismiss most department heads, veto acts of the council, prepare the budget, plan various programs, and direct the operation of all city departments. The mayor serves as the leader in city government and proposes legislation to the city council. However, the council determines basic government policy and raises revenue for the city.
Most experts on city government consider the strong-mayor system superior to the weak-mayor system. The centralization of authority in the office of the mayor assures better coordination of the services of city government. One of the chief weaknesses of the strong-mayor system is that conflicts often arise between the mayor and the council because they share policymaking powers. One reason most of the largest cities in the United States use the strong-mayor system is that satisfying the conflicting demands of a wide variety of social groups requires strong political leadership.
The council-manager form
of government is also called the city manager plan. Under this form of government, a professional administrator called a city manager supervises all municipal affairs. An elected city council hires the city manager. The council-manager plan is the most common form of city government in the United States for cities with populations of 25,000 or more. More than half of all such cities use the council-manager system.
In most cities that use the council-manager form, the council members are elected on nonpartisan ballots. Usually, the mayor is a member of the council. He or she is either elected to the office by the people or selected by the other council members. The mayor presides at council meetings but seldom has more power than other members. The council is the chief governing body of the city. It determines policies and passes ordinances. The city manager carries out the policies set by the council. The council may dismiss the city manager if it is dissatisfied.
A chief feature of the council-manager plan is the centralization of administrative responsibility. The city manager appoints the heads of all departments and is responsible for managing all of the city services.
Council-manager government is modeled on the organization of a business firm. The city council corresponds to the board of directors of a corporation, and the city manager to a corporation’s general manager. City managers, who have experience and special training in city administration, perform many of the governmental activities. Politics is supposed to play little or no part in their administrative decisions because they are appointed, not elected. However, some scholars believe that city managers lack the ability to handle political conflicts between ethnic groups, economic groups, or neighborhoods. They argue that council members selected in nonpartisan elections lack political experience and do not work well together. In addition, some cities have tended to blame all political weaknesses on the city manager and therefore have had high rates of turnover in managers.
The council-manager plan developed in the United States during the early 1900’s. It was promoted by a businessman named Richard S. Childs and by the National Short Ballot Organization, a nonpartisan political group he founded. In 1908, Staunton, Virginia, hired a general manager to handle its administrative affairs under a mayor-council system. In 1912, Sumter, South Carolina, became the first city to adopt a complete council-manager government. The first large city to do so was Dayton, Ohio, in 1913.
The commission form
of government combines legislative and executive authority in an elected group of commissioners. Each commissioner heads a city department—such as public works, finance, or public safety—and is separately responsible for the administration of his or her department. The commission as a body has the power to pass ordinances, impose taxes, distribute funds for city needs, and appoint officials. One of the members may be designated as mayor for ceremonial functions and for presiding over commission meetings.
The chief objection to commission government has been that disagreements among commission members on issues involving more than one department make effective coordination difficult. Today, only about 25 U.S. cities with populations of 25,000 or more have a commission form of government.
Administering city government
City governments employ many people to provide services to residents. These employees are organized into many separate departments and agencies, such as the police department and the public library. Each department is headed by an administrator who is responsible to the mayor, city manager, or commissioners. These agencies and their employees are called the city bureaucracy.
Patronage
is the practice of awarding jobs and government contracts based on people’s service to the party in power. The patronage system was widely used in the 1800’s. During the late 1800’s, many reformers charged that the patronage system produced dishonest and inefficient city workers. The reformers urged that more city jobs should be filled by a civil service system based on merit. They also called for nonpartisan elections, in which candidates for city office are listed on the ballot with no indication of their political party. Today, the majority of all municipalities in the United States hold nonpartisan elections for city offices.
Civil service
includes all city government employees who are appointed rather than elected. The first state civil service system was established in New York in 1883. Today, all states and most large cities have civil service systems in which appointments are based on merit rather than on political connections. Applicants for such civil service jobs take an examination, and those with the highest scores are hired. Civil servants are protected against being fired from their jobs for political reasons.
By the 1970’s, most states permitted some form of collective bargaining by civil service employees. In collective bargaining, the city government and its employees meet to arrange working conditions and salaries that are acceptable to both sides. Many city workers, including fire fighters and sanitation workers, are members of labor unions that bargain with city government. Unauthorized strikes by city workers sometimes occur. A few states permit strikes by some groups of city employees.
City finances
Sources of revenue.
City governments have traditionally relied on property taxes to finance city services. The city collects these taxes from homeowners, businesses, and other owners of taxable property. The amount of tax is based on the estimated value of the property.
City governments rely in part on financial aid from state and federal governments. Much of this assistance comes in the form of grants-in-aid. Grants-in-aid are funds made available under certain conditions or for a certain program. Most grants from state governments may be used for general purposes, but the city must meet certain standards established by the state. Most federal aid consists of grants for such specific purposes as airport construction or improvements in city sewerage systems. The federal government also offers block grants, which cities may use for various projects within a certain area, such as housing or education. Many cities complain that the federal government issues mandates that require them to provide increased services but do not supply the necessary funding. For example, cities must meet federal standards for the removal of asbestos and lead-based paint from buildings. But the federal government provides little or no financial aid for such programs.
Expenditures.
About 40 percent of a typical municipal budget goes to pay city workers. The rest is used for such lasting improvements as parks and museums, and for such specific purposes as buying library books and maintaining roads.
Budget problems.
Many cities experienced serious budget difficulties in the late 1900’s. For example, Cleveland defaulted (failed to pay) its debts in 1978 and could not pay them until 1980. Bridgeport, Connecticut, filed for bankruptcy in 1991 but withdrew the application in 1992. Many other cities were near default.
There were many reasons for city budget problems. In some older cities, the tax base (total value of property that can be taxed) decreased as people and businesses moved to the suburbs. Inflation also strained municipal budgets. Inflation, cuts in federal aid, and needs for services for such groups as homeless people and AIDS patients also strained municipal budgets. At times, many cities were forced to cut programs and to lay off city workers.
Influencing city government
People can influence their city government in many ways. They can act individually by voting in municipal elections and by writing or talking to city officials. They can join with others to organize and participate in political parties and other groups.
Municipal elections
are held every four years in most cities. Elections enable citizens to vote for the officials and proposals of their choice. However, the number of people who vote in city elections is small in comparison with the number who vote in state or national elections.
Parties and other groups.
During the late 1800’s, political parties were extremely active in local government. They developed strong organizations called machines, which did favors for citizens in return for votes cast for party candidates. Party machines began to disappear during the early 1900’s, when municipal governments adopted nonpartisan elections and other reform measures.
Groups called special-interest groups are probably the major influence on city government today. Business groups and downtown merchants call for policies to attract new industries. Minority groups may demand more jobs and better community services. Taxpayer organizations attempt to limit city spending and taxes. Neighborhood organizations support programs to reduce crime rates and to improve neighborhood conditions. Environmental groups may oppose the establishment of hazardous-waste sites and other projects that they believe threaten the environment or people’s health.
