Essay on Government Form and Public Spending
Today, the US has two dominant forms of government, mayor-council and council-manager. Even though there is another form of government, commission, but this form is not popular anymore and survived only in about 1% of the US cities, while the overwhelming majority of the US cities have either council-manager or mayor-council form of government, which are almost equally spread throughout the US (Forms of Municipal Government 2). Therefore, the effectiveness of either form of government can reveal which form of government is more prospective.
At first glance, the growing share of council-manager form of government implies that this form of government is more effective. However, in economic terms, the mayor-council form of government is more effective because it is more cost-efficient compared to council-manager (Coate 3). However, the theoretical justification of the higher efficiency of the mayor-council form of government does not mirror the public attitude to the city government in the US. The share of council-manager city governments has increased from 48% in 1996 to 55% in 2006 (Forms of Municipal Government 2). Therefore, the economic efficiency of the mayor-council form of government is not the determinant factor for the public to define the overall effectiveness of the government. Hence, along with the economic efficiency, there is the public efficiency. In this regard, the council-manager form of government is more efficient in terms of social and political performance, such as representation of diverse social groups.
Thus, the mayor-council and council-manager form of government in the US cities are almost equally popular. In this regard, the mayor-council form of government is more efficient in economic terms, while the council-manager form is more efficient in social and political terms. This is why these are the two most popular forms of government.
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