UCLG COUNTRY PROFILES United States of America Capital: Washington, D.C. Inhabitants: 304.124.000 (2008) Area: 9.826.630 km²
1. Introduction
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Reverence for local democracy nonetheless constitutes one of the enduring features of political culture in the United States. Across the variety of local arrangements and institutions, local government and decentralization share several general features. The United States of America is a federal union with the oldest written constitution, dating to 1789. With a population of 288 million, it had per capita GDP of €42,623 in 2002. The Constitution divides the federal government between a bicameral legislature (the House of Representatives and the Senate), an executive headed by an elected President, and a judiciary headed by a Supreme Court. Local government in the eastern part of the country goes back the first settlements by Europeans. Many of these were often governed initially as self-standing communities. Thirteen original colonies formed an initial confederation that won independence from Britain. In the early years of the Republic, local government law largely followed British practice in limiting the legal authorizations for local government. Although current-day institutions have changed considerably,
The powers and institutional nature of local government derive not from the federal constitution itself, but from the powers it allocates to the states. Especially over the course of the twentieth century, however, states have frequently given local governments considerable independent autonomy from state control through attributions of “home rule” and other broad grants of authority. But the states remain the main bodies that establish the procedures and institutional forms of local government. This contributes to what is perhaps the most remarkable feature of local government in the United States, its remarkable institutional complexity and diversity. The frameworks established by state governments often vary considerably, and in some cases even set rules for individual city governments. Even beyond general purpose local governments, a growing array of “special purpose” units