ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an exploration of local government reforms and examines the structural and organizational changes implemented in US cities at the dawn of the 21st century as the relevance of traditional models of local government came into debate. The mayor-council and the council-manager systems are the two most prevalent forms of local government in the United States. Cincinnati adopted a council-manager form of government in 1924 while riding the wave of the Good Government Reform Movement, with a major purpose of ridding the city of machine politics at the hands of Republican mayor “Boss” George Cox. Observers have referred to Cincinnati as a conciliated city, as convergence occurred to such a degree that the city falls neither into the so-called adapted-political nor adapted-administrative city but includes elements of both. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the conciliated or hybrid model adopted in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1999.
