Efforts have been made to introduce the township system in the States of the South and of the West, but in these States the counties are ordinarily divided into subordinate districts, largely for administrative purposes ; and such districts, though sometimes called townships. usually have little, if anything, of independent authority in the field of local Government.
The growth of urban population has naturally led to the de velopment of cities as the chief agencies to meet local needs occasioned by more compact population. The chief forms of city Government in the United States are primarily three : (a) the mayor-council, or Federal, plan; (b) the commission plan; and (c) the manager plan.
The mayor-council or Federal plan is still the most general. It is to a large extent organized upon the analogy of the National Government. There is a popularly elected mayor with large powers, which have tended steadily to develop. The mayor normally has a veto power and a fairly large power of appoint ment ; although several of the more important officers, such as clerk and treasurer, are usually elected by the voters of the city, just as is the mayor. There are ordinarily under the mayor a group of departments whose heads are appointed either by the mayor alone or by the mayor with the approval of the council. Usually there is a council composed of a single house, whose members are elected from wards into which the city is divided, although occasionally some or all of the members are elected from the city at large.
The fundamental characteristic of the commission plan of city Government is an elective commission, usually of three or five members, having large municipal powers, both legislative and executive. Each of the commissioners is the head of a depart ment, and there are as many main city departments as there are commissioners. Along with this system has come ordinarily the initiative and the referendum on municipal ordinances, and a power to recall the members of the commission by petition and popular vote.
The so-called manager type of city Government had its origin about 1908, though it first received serious consideration upon its adoption by the City of Dayton, Ohio, in 1913. More than four hundred cities in the U.S. are now governed under the manager plan. Under this plan there is a commission or council, whose members are usually elected from the city at large, often times by the use of proportional representation. This body de termines the policy of city Government, and selects a manager to administer the affairs of the city. Through the commission plan, which originated in i9o1 and which for perhaps fifteen years had great sway in American city development, and through the mana ger plan, which originated in 1912 and has tended to replace the commission plan, much has been done since 1901 toward the re construction of city Government in the U.S.