ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies and reviews the major institutions of local government and defines the metropolitan regions of the United States. There are four dimensions that can be used to explain differences in systems of local government in the United States. The first is a politico-legal dimension that captures how particular state legislatures have defined the role of local government within their state system. The second is a cultural dimension that reflects the values and orientation of a particular state relative to its view of the nature of civil society, the types of rules that ought to govern that society, and a general sense of who ought to participate in the making of those rules. The third is a geo-spatial dimension that reflects variation in geography, topology, population, and demographics in each of the states. The fourth is an economic dimension, reflecting that states do not have equal resources and that some states have healthier economies than others.
