ABSTRACT
A phase of the progressive movement in cities is the tendency manifesting itself all over the United States to adopt a simpler form of city charter for the purpose of making municipal government more directly responsive to popular control. For the city that has obtained the right to choose its own charter and is seeking the type that will make possible the greatest efficiency in its government, there are available several new kinds of municipal charters worked out by progressive cities. Of these the most important and the most widely adopted are the commission plan and the city manager plan. The fundamental purpose underlying these two types of city government—and in fact the whole charter movement—is twofold. First, cities aim to adopt that form of city government which, by its simplicity, its absence of checks and balances, its concentration of authority and responsibility, may be easily controlled. Secondly, they aim to evolve efficient instruments and devices of control.
