ABSTRACT
Thus far we have focused in on local government concerns about the lack of authority and finances and being monitored and taken over by the state. Here we focus on concerns regarding restructuring the pattern of local government – policies affecting the number and types of local government and that raise the prospect of a local government being dissolved or consolidated with another local government or losing a measure of control to a governmental entity at the metropolitan or regional level. In this chapter, we begin with a look at the general growth of local governments and efforts to cut back the number and proceed to explore the theoretical debates over the need for major restricting in the metropolitan areas and various courses of action that have been or might be taken there in regard to annexation, incorporation, contracts and agreements, special districts, consolidation, the use of counties and councils of government.
