During the interval between the town meetings the affairs of the town are managed by a board of selectmen, composed of three or five members, elected by the voters. The selectmen prepare the business for the town meeting and carry out its decisions. The larger towns also maintain various other boards, such as a school board, a water board, and a board of health, the members being in all cases elected at the town meeting. Other town officials include a town clerk, a treasurer, an auditor, and a superintendent of schools.
Recent changes in the system.
When towns grow large the town meeting becomes unwieldy and the system of administration by numerous boards fails to work smoothly. For this reason some New England towns have recently adopted a “limited town meeting” system, by which the voters of the town elect delegates to represent them in the town meeting. A few towns have also abolished the various administrative boards and have placed town administration in charge of a town manager appointed by the selectmen.[[64]]
The Township.—In the great group of Central and Middle Western states, ranging from New York and Pennsylvania to Nebraska and the Dakotas, the principal area of community government is the township, although it is sometimes called the town. In the older states these townships (or towns) are of irregular shape; in several of the newer states the so-called “congressional” townships were laid out in uniform blocks, six miles square. In some of the states, both old and new, the towns or townships have town meetings, as in New England, but nowhere outside of New England have these meetings attained any great importance. Their chief function in the Central and Middle Western states is to elect the town or township officers. The work of township (or town) administration is carried on either by a board of trustees or by a single official commonly known as a supervisor. There are also various subordinate officials, all of whom are usually elected by the voters.
The County Districts.—In most states of the South and Far West there are no townships. The county remains the principal area of local government, but for the management of various community affairs the county is divided into districts. There are school districts, road districts, and election districts, for example. Each district has its own elective officers who are in charge of the function for which the district was established.
Incorporated towns, boroughs, and villages.
The Incorporated Communities.—The vitality of townships and district government has been weakened by the practice of incorporating as a village, town, borough, or city, any portion of the area which becomes thickly settled. The laws of the various states usually provide that whenever any part of a community becomes sufficiently populous a designated number of the inhabitants may petition for incorporation. The question is then submitted to a vote, and if the vote is favorable, a charter of incorporation is granted. A certain minimum of population is required; usually from two to three hundred in the case of a village, one to three thousand in the case of a town, and more than three thousand in the case of a city. These figures vary from state to state. In some Western states the minimum for incorporation for a city is only a few hundred. In any event when the place becomes incorporated as a village, town, borough, or city it becomes separate, for administrative purposes, from the township or district to which it belonged and sets up a local government of its own. The nature of this government, the officials, and the scope of their powers are all fixed by the laws of the state. There are more than 15,000 incorporated villages, towns, boroughs, and cities in the United States, nearly three fourths of them being places of less than 2500 population.
The advantages.
The Merits and Defects of the Local Government System.—The most marked feature of the American system of local government, when surveyed as a whole, is its decentralization. Nothing is uniform throughout the country; each state follows its own plan, and everywhere a large measure of home rule in local affairs is granted. Contrast this with the system of local government in the French Republic for example, where all communities, whether large or small, are governed in exactly the same way and strictly controlled by the central authorities in Paris. The American system has the advantage of allowing each section of the country to adopt whatever scheme best suits its own particular needs. It also facilitates the making of experiments in local government and through these experiments we learn better ways of doing things. The large measure of local home rule brings community government close to the people, giving them control over it and responsibility for it. It fosters initiative and tends to develop a wholesome rivalry in good work. Local government is a fine school for the teaching of democracy.
The defects.