The City Manager in the United States
| Published date | 01 December 1949 |
| Author | Louis Brownlow |
| Date | 01 December 1949 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1949.tb02703.x |
The
City
Manager
in
the
United
States
By
LOUIS
BROWNLOW
Among the mysteries about America
none is more marvelous than the process
by which we work out a national pattern,
and achieve ends that are universally
recognised as American, without
having-for many purposes-a national
government.
We have, for example, an American
system of free public schools, supported
by
taxation, from the kindergarten
through the university. Attendance at
these schools in the elementary and
secondary grades is compulsory. There
are
no scholarships. There are
no
fees.
Textbooks are provided free, and, in most
rural areas,
so
is transportation, This
gigantic educational system is not of
equal quality throughout the country.
In
some sections minority groups are not
afforded fully equal facilities, and the
system
as
a whole reflects regional
cultural differences. Yet
it
is essentially
a
national system. And yet the Federal
government, which so often is
inaccurately called the national govern-
ment, has never had anything to do with
it.
The
school system
is
operated by
approximately
110,000
independent
school districts, supervised by
48
state
governments, controlled by conditional
grants-in-aid from state treasuries, and
inspected and disciplined by
non-
governmental voluntary associations of
school administrators, school teachers,
and parents. (And today the main issue
about federal grants-in-aid to education
is
not whether to give the money, but how
the Federal government may do
so
without exercising any control over
education.) These
110,000
school dis-
victs
make
up
much
the
largest
func-
tional block among the
155,000
local
government units existing in the United
states.
So
also
with municipal government
there is a national pattern, even though
each
of
the
48
states has a different
system
of
law relating to municipal
government, and even though most of
them allow each
city
to determine far
itself-to a large degree-the extent
of its municipal powers and the form of
its organisation.
It
should be remembered that in
American usage the word
“
city
’’
is a
generic term used in ordinary speech to
describe any urban aggregation of people
or any place that has been granted
by a state legislature the powers of
a
municipal corporation, whether
by
indi-
vidual charter or under general law.
Thus, New York with a population of
almost eight million is a city. Also
Tetetboro, New Jersey, with a popu-
lation
of
nine,
is
a city. Teterboro,
from the flats of Hackensack Meadows,
looks up at the New York skyline. New
York cliff dwellers look down
on
Teter-
boro.
It
does not occur to either that
there
is
anything
incongruous in the
fact that in common parlance both are
cities. A more precise term in common
usage for such an incorporated place is
municipality,” and thus we have, in
most
of
the states, municipal governments
banded together in Leagues
of
Munici-
palities. But the words
“
city
”
or
“
municipality
’’
are never used with
respect to a county, however urban that
county may become. The stratifiedstruc-
turd arrangement, which does not indi-
cate any corresponding hierarchical
arrangement, is
:
(1)
the Federal govern-
ment,
(2)
the state government, (3) the
county government,
(4)
the municipal
government. However, the municipal
government may be, and usually is,
divided among different agencies, as, for
instance the city, the school districts,
special drainage districts, flood control
districts
or the like. The phrase
“
local
authorities
”,
as used in England, is
unknown
in
the United States. If it were
used
in
ordinary conversation, it would be
taken to refer to the members of a local
police department or fire department,
to
the health officer or the tax collector,
or
such other functionary
as
might be
indicated by the context.
Furthermore, a city or municipal
government is taken always to mean the
sum total of all its people and all its
area, as well as its governing officials-
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