Local Government: Lake County The general purpose of a local government is defined by, according to the Oxford Dictionary: "the administration of a particular town, county, or district, with representatives elected by those who live there.” This essay deals with local government of Lake County and its functionality as a service to the inhabitants. In order to cover what the local government of Lake County, this essay encompasses its historical foundation and how the administration came to be. As well as the political structure, public service, the presence of home rule in Lake County, and its challenges. There will also be described as how you can best influence the government to voice opinions. Lake County close to the shore of Lake Michigan …show more content…
This is similar to a franchised business, with different stores that the corporate owners need to make sure that each branch operates in a manner that will make the business successful and thriving. This is the same for local government, because if one branch of the government was not doing its proper duties the government will fail, this in turn causes chaos and disunity. For example the Parks Department in Lake County’s job is to provide and maintain parks in Lake County. If they aren’t preforming their jobs correctly, like if they aren’t maintain the parks and picking up the trash in them; the board will decide on how to act to bring things back to …show more content…
There are many different ways to perform this action. For example, like contacting you congressmen. This is a good way to show an opinion because that is their job to represent the state or region in a local level. Another great way is to create or sign a petition. A petition is a document that people of a community sign that states a concern and requests that will something be done to improve the situation. The more signatures the petition receives, the more interest is shown to change that current law or situation. One of another good ways that is generally free is to use the internet. Why can’t a political issue receive as much attention as a video on you tube? And it doesn’t just have to be the internet it can be a local newspaper, television station, or radio station are another way that opinions and information can be spread. One final way would be to create a peaceful protest. Americans have the right to protest, it is legal to attend or organize an assembly to express opinions on an issue. Protests can be a powerful way of sending a message to your representatives, and often attracts media
Municipal control or an alternative delivery method? This is the question that has intrigued all levels of local government and created intense debates between taxpayers across municipalities. The services that municipalities provide are often vital to the existence of a local area. The issues of accountability, cost savings, quality of service and democracy often arise when choosing the best options to deliver services to a municipal area. In recent years the concepts of privatization, alternative service delivery and public-private partnerships are often promoted as ways cut down on overburdened annual city budgets and promote a higher quality of service to citizens. Municipalities have historically always provided basic services such as fire protection, water purification/treatment and recreational facilities. However, would private companies or another municipality be able to better deliver the same services more efficiently or at a lower cost? The city or town often provides a political grass roots approach to most local problems. Municipalities are better positioned and have a wider scope to provide services to their constituents in order to ensure quality of service that does not erode accountability and transparency, or drive the municipality deeper into debt.
Our county was founded with the principles of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. The constitution is structured to ensue those individual rights. We have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
The relationship between a local government and its people is typically a combined form of stability, as well as discordant moments of tension and rising-to-dramatic change. More specifically, the political climate of the local government differs depending on how those people view the three aspects of their governmental calls and needs: rights and responsibility of the people, obligations of their government, and limits on the local governmental authority.
Setting the stage for our national and state government, Federalisms, looked to be a solution to these issues. By focusing on a strong state government, Federalism, shifted power away from the national government. Two strengths of these changes are and increase access to government, and tailored policy that fits the local government’s needs. Two weaknesses of American federalism are that local interests can hinder nationally supported policies, and a conflict of authority.
The national government is often though to be the sole sovereign authority of a territory, however, governmental authority is not so often clearly delineated or concentrated. Large, regionalized identity groups within an existing state may call for greater autonomy, or existing states may see unity with another as politically or economically advantageous, either development leading to multiple governmental levels within the same territory. Differentiated models of constitutional organization amongst regional governments and centralized national or super-national structures developed from this tension between autonomy and unity, namely the unitary state, the federation, and the confederate models. Each of these systems seeks to accommodate regionalized
Our government here in Texas has three major parts that play a significant part in our decision making process. These levels have been deigned to decentralize power and make it more affective for the public's needs. The primary level is the Texas legislature. It is almost a given to say that everyone has at least heard of the legislature. Some variables that the legislature contains are the Lt. Governor, the Speaker of the house of Representatives and Committee Chairs. The Speaker acts as the presiding officer over the house and has two levels of power. These two levels are institutional powers which allow the officer to preside over the Legislative Audit Committee and Sunset Advisory Committee.
Modern Bureaucracy in the United States serves to administer, gather information, conduct investigations, regulate, and license. Once set up, a bureaucracy is inherently conservative. The reason the bureaucracy was initiated may not continue to exist as a need in the future. The need or reason may change with a change in the times and the culture needs. A bureaucracy tends to make decisions that protect it and further it’s own existence, possibly apart from the wishes of the populace. It may not consistently reflect what might be optimal in terms of the needs and wants of the people. Local governments employ most of the United States civil servants. The 14 cabinet departments in the U.S. are run day-to-day by career civil servants, which have a great deal of discretionary authority.
Power is retained by local or regional governments in a confederation system. Before the Constitution of the United States was created, the states were the main powerhouse of the confederation system under the Articles of Confederation. (pg. 48-49) The authors of the Constitution wanted to combine a central government strong enough to maintain order with strong states. A federal constitution establishes the structure of a government; intergovernmental relations bring the structure to life. Intergovernmental relations are the way in which the necessary business gets done. Relation...
by using several different methods to persuade the public’s opinion and the U.S Congress to agree with them.
National, Local, and State governments work together cooperatively to solve common problems rather than making separate polices. They work more on an equal level to get things fixed. This type of federalism is hard to tell where one type of government ends and the next one begins. National and state governments are independent and interdependent with an overlap of functions and financial resources. It is difficult for one to accumulate absolute power with this type of federalism.
Local government is commissioned to its state constitution and it is subject to the legal environment created by the state’s structure and laws just like the way the state government should not conflict with the federal law. State governments is a reflection of the federal government since it has an elected head of the executive branch who is the governor, a self-governing judiciary, and a commonly elected legislative division.
Kevin B. Smith, Alan Greenblatt, and John Buntin, Governing states and localities: First Edition (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press), 2005, 95.
This is where the idea of Federalism comes into play. The definition of Federalism goes as follows; Federalism is the philosophy that power should be divided between the central powers and all its constituents. In other words the power of the United States should not all be in the hands of the national government, each state should have a say in the way that they want their own state to run. Every state wants to progress in a different way, and every state wants to progress at a different speed. However when problems get to large for a single state run government to handle, the national (federal) government will proceed to step in and set forth the necessary measures to control the situation.
Democracy has been the root of a limited government, the system of which government powers are distributed so that one group of leaders do not have too much influence. The limited government has been structured to keep peace amongst all parties that are involved in the government. And under the U.S. Constitution, citizens are given ultimate power by their right to choose their representatives through the democratic process of voting. Each levels of the government are limited as they have their own responsibilities. The city government has the most local level of government as the residents elect a city council and mayor to represent their interest at the city level. All city governments establish housing and health regulations, and are responsible
...oice their concerns and complaints with their government in the form of a representative body.