ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses local governments' structures. It presents some of the challenges local governments face and ways in which moving from government to governance can overcome those challenges. The chapter provides examples of collaboration, sustaining resident involvement, and leveraging regional resources. Governance is particularly important in rural areas, where governments are small, elected government officials serve part time with small budgets, and few professional staff are available to find the necessary information to make sound decisions or to implement decisions when they are made. The very organization of local government in rural areas presents special problems for the effective delivery of services. Rural governments are as diverse as rural economies. Governance—widening decision making and responsibility to multiple jurisdictions and including market and civil society groups—can help rural governments provide services and increase public involvement. The decline in productive investment has led to a crisis in employment in many states.
