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The Benefits of American Local Government Are Fast Being Replaced by Privatization. Elites Use Local Control to Maintain Class Separation & Disenfranchise People.

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American local government could be a forum for active participation by the citizenry in affairs that concern them but this is rarely the case.

Local governments are often isolated from the community or serve as part of a bigger party machine in a county or state.

Between 1970 and 1991, local officials arrested on corruption charges increased 10 times, according to a 1994 issue brief paper by the Washington based non-governmental organization Common Cause.

With issues of corruption mushrooming before the public eye, in the early 90s, several states implemented ethics laws in order to address the problem.

This is partly of how local government has evolved and changed over history in the United States.

The most decentralized manifestation of government, which sprung up widely in the 20the Century, is a specialized district governance, most notably the school district with its governing board.

Districts are formed by a state or county or by the petition of citizens to fulfill an unmet need. While they can expand participation, they can also be used to get around accountability in the spending of tax funds.

The American system of local municipal governing councils is based in the English system which is considered one of the most representative forms in western society.

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Making Improvements for Working People

When people with a real interest in improving society are elected to American local government, real changes have been made at the local level to make improvements for the quality of life.

Of course, this is easier in smaller areas that are not beholden to big money to run for office and where the problems of big cities are not encountered.

Nevertheless some cities (Baltimore for example), have passed decent wage laws raising the lowest wages in their cities and thus exerting pressure on their state as well.

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Trends Toward Privatizing

However for the past 30 years, American local government has also faced privatization in many municipalities where local councils have privatized many services.

This often means loss of decent paying union jobs to lower paying jobs with fewer benefits and security for employees.

A 2002 report for the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, which is affiliated to George Washington University, found that privatizing local and state government is particularly harmful to women of color. 

Data analyzed showed that a disproportionate number of African American and Latin American women depend upon the public sector for decent paying jobs with full benefits.

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Segregating the Rich from the Poor

By 2006, American local government powers had been greatly diminished. At that time, some 52 million Americans lived in neighborhoods governed by Homeowners Associations.

These are generally condos and affluent neighborhoods that are essentially self-governing

If this de facto process of political privatization is formalized, it could provoke a ghettoizing of tax bases that would leave poor neighborhoods on their own to resolve their issues while higher income neighborhoods circle their wagons.

This is only a logical step in an America where the distribution of wealth moves from the bottom up, as recently demonstrated by the ongoing bailout of Wall Street at the expense of Main Street where the jobless rate hit a 26 year high at 8.5% in March of 2009.

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