local government
)
That part of government dealing mainly with matters concerning the inhabitants of a particular area or town, usually financed at least in part by local taxes. In the USA and UK, local government has comparatively large powers and responsibilities.
Historically, in European countries such as France, Germany, and the USSR, local government tended to be more centrally controlled than in Britain, although German cities have a tradition of independent action, as in Berlin, and France from 1969 moved towards regional decentralization. In the USA the system shows evidence of the early type of settlement (for example, in New England the town is the unit of local government, in the South the county, and in the northern central states the combined county and township). A complication is the tendency to delegate power to special authorities in such fields as education. In Australia, although an integrated system similar to the British was planned, the scattered nature of settlement, apart from the major towns, has prevented the establishment of any uniform tiered arrangement.
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