ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the macrotrends affecting the state-local governance system and its reshaping. It provides key principles and assumptions that are guiding the direction of state-local interaction at the approach of the twenty-first century. The formal nature of the state-local relationship is unitary and hierarchical. The current environment for state-local relations is complex, involving demographic, economic, social, political, and technological dynamics, as well as increased demands for service in a time of uneven resources, regionalization, and disintegration of the civic infrastructure. Technology also poses problems for state-local relations. There are questions about the constitutionality of witness testimony by video, currently limiting the use of such technology to pretrial, administrative proceedings and appeals. Local governments provide traditional and basic services but cannot borrow their way out of problems. Access is afforded to every phase of the policy cycle: problem identification, agenda setting, policy formulation, policy and program implementation, and evaluation.
