Studying government at the grass roots level may not automatically engage your students' interest. If instructors want this topic to be of any interest to the student, they must first establish the importance of the topic. Probably the best way to do that is to demonstrate to the students the impact of local government on their lives.
Most of your students were born in a public hospital, generally run by a local government authority. They drove home from the hospital over locally built and maintained roads and bridges. Most went to a public school system for thirteen years (K‑12), run by a local school district. The law enforcement officers they encounter for traffic violations or partying too loudly are city police or county sheriff’s deputies. The judge they go before in most cases will be a city or county judge. The businesses they patronize are licensed by local government and operate in buildings constructed according to local building codes. When students reach the age and financial position to want a house, the subdivision ordinances and zoning regulations of the community will determine the size, type, and location of the house.
After the importance of local government is established, then the standard topic--forms of government, organization, state‑local relations, reform--should be more readily grasped. Reform is a key word in discussing metropolitan government, for it is in metro areas that existing governmental structures clash head‑on with powerful economic, social, and geographic forces. Fragmented government--numerous cities, counties, and special districts in the same geographic area--has a hard time coping with the complex problems of suburban sprawl and with the concentration of severe social problems in central cities that have limited fiscal resources.
Instructors should also emphasize the political dilemmas of metropolitan areas. The old machines and bosses are gone; political parties no longer serve as organizational and ideological rallying points; interest groups are more proficient than ever before; and a city's service and revenue potential stops at its borders, which are not easily expanded.
New institutions are needed to govern metropolitan
I. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Compare state‑local relations with national‑state relations.
2. Describe the unitary system of government
3. Define constitutional home rule.
4. Describe current trends relative to the role and powers of county government.
5. Explain how typical county governments are structured, including the functions of major officials.
6. Assess the overall performance of county government.
7. Discuss why the
8. Analyze the reasons for the growth of suburbia.
9. Discuss the reasons for the development of “edge cities” and the problems associated with their governance.
10. Describe the major forms of city government and their effectiveness.
11. Compare the effects on ethnic group representation of at‑large and district electoral systems.
12. Analyze the power of the mayor in different city structural arrangements.
13. Examine the role of the mayor.
14. Describe the interest groups in big cities and their stakes in local government.
15. Analyze the impact of grass roots self‑help movements on local policy making.
16. Debate the notion of an "urban crisis."
17. Analyze the reasons for the anti-growth movement that has developed in many cities.
18. Discuss the special problems that exist in central cities and the reasons for higher operating costs.
19. Identify and describe metropolitan reform strategies that have been tried and identify those that have been successful.
20. Analyze the reasons why the development of area wide, integrated metropolitan government is so problematic.