ABSTRACT
The federalist model of U.S. politics allows power to remain as close to the state as possible. The U.S. Constitution states that all powers not explicitly identified by the federal constitution, federal courts, or federal statute reside with the state. In general, issues that affect only the local jurisdiction are best left to the city, with issues that affect a regional area left to the county, those that affect several counties left to the state, and issues that affect two or more states left to the federal government. Beyond that, any issue that has constitutional implications can be regulated by the federal government. Clearly, with 50 states and some 85,000 local governments, intergovernmental relations are extremely important. Within California alone, there are 58 counties, 478 municipalities, and 3,400 special districts.
