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Commentary By Howard Husock

Fewer Governments = Poorer Governance

Culture Philanthropy

Feature from the Winter 2017 Issue of Philanthropy magazine

As Americans, we must not lose sight of the fact that our traditional, federalist approach to governance can, and historically has been, a vehicle to encourage, not dampen, civil society. President Woodrow Wilson observed that American communities are not governed but rather “govern themselves.” Municipalities were largely responsible for their own affairs—and accountable to local citizens for their performance.

Smaller communities encourage friends and neighbors to join together and start organizations that address local problems. But changes in our governing structure pose a threat to these local attachments and activities. Thanks to the consolidation of school districts and the regionalization of local governments, we’ve seen a sharp decline in the overall number of governing jurisdictions in the U.S. In 1942 we had 155,000 units of government in the U.S. By 2012 that number had fallen to 90,000, even though population more than doubled.

“I was warned against being dazzled by the desire to do grand things with big players.”

Government consolidation was driven by a false premise: that larger units of governance would be more efficient and effective. That has not borne out. Meanwhile, communities now face diktats on education, building and development, environmental questions, and many other issues that they once decided on their own (often through the help of volunteer-based boards that build social cohesion and foster new ideas).

We don’t need more government to foster a more robust civil society. But allowing more bodies of government, operating closer to the people, could help. The trend toward more expansive and expensive government in the U.S. and away from locally accountable government should be resisted and reversed.  

This piece originally appeared at the Philanthropy Roundtable

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Howard Husock is the Vice President of Research and Publications at the Manhattan Institute. From 1987 through 2006, he was director of case studies in public policy and management at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

This piece originally appeared in Philanthropy Roundtable