Integration And Fragmentation

A major attribute of the metropolitan area in the United States is political fragmentation.From the late of nineteenth century the metropolitan areas have reformed in order to eleminate the negative effect of the political fragmentation.The dissertation take this process as the object of study,which is aimed at grasping the tracks and inherent features.The dissertation is composed of six parts:Chapter 1, "A Survey of the Metropolitan Areas" .This part first present the political fragmentation of the metropolitan areas and the local government system in America simply,then analyse the causes of this fragmentation pattern which include the engrained particularism,the desire for improved municipal services, the tax and profit consideration,political culture and the permissive incorporation laws.Chapter 2, "Annexation of the Central City" .Annexation has occurred in two great waves. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century many suburban communities facing sevice shortage chose annexation for getting improved municipal services. In the 1920s and 1930s, however,suburbanites had many options to obtain an increasing number of services,so they began reject annexation from central cities and annexation was on the decline in the metropolitan areas.Until the World War II ended, many states,particularly in the south and west .initiated the large scale annexation again.Chapter 3, "The Federative Metropolitan Government" . Due to the suburb's rejection of annextion,the reformer compromised an alternative and support a federative,two-tier type of metropolitan govenmental structure.Under this arrangement ,a new general-purpose metropolitan government provide regionally orienated services and the existing local governments retain their identity and continue to be responsible for local affairs.This chaper provides an overview of the reform experience and analyses the federative character of Metro Dade County in the Miami metropolitan area.Chapter 4, "City-County Consolidation" .As another integration method city -county consolidation means the governments of the city and of the county wh ich the city located are combined into a single metropolitan government.Althou gh city-county consolidation appeared in the late ninetheen century,its wide ado ption happened in the 1960s and 1970s.This section introduces city-county cons olidation through three cases,then discusses its effect and a number of factorsth...