State Governments

When the 13 original east colonies sent their representatives to Philadelphia in 1787 for the Federal Convention, to prepare a constitution for the US, each state already had its own constitution (each was based on the fundamental principle of the separation of legislature, executive and judicial powers). As new states were admitted to the Union, each had a constitution based on similar principles and acceptable to the Congress which granted statehood, though all have been amended many times since their original introduction. At the beginning of the 20^th century, the main body of the US was complete, except that the District of Columbia was still outside any state.

When the 13 colonies became states and decided to join in a Union, there was much discussion about the capital. The decision finally arrived at was to carve out a hundred square miles from the states of Maryland and Virginia – ten miles (16 km) on each side – call it Federal territory, and built a modern capital on that site, which got the name of District of Columbia. This area is not a state, it belongs neither to the north, nor to the south, but to all states. The name of the capital always goes with the abbreviation D.C. not to be mixed with another Washington, one of the 50 US states. The District is named after Columbus, the discoverer of America. The capital bears the name of the first American President – George Washington.

Every state is divided into sub-units, usually called counties, but towns and other urban areas within the counties are incorporated as “cities” or other “municipalities” with their own local functions.

Every state is sovereign within its own area, subject to the limits imposed by the Constitution and laws if the US. Within every state every county, city and other authority derives its legal existence and powers from the state – including its power to spend money and to obtain the money by local taxes or borrowing.

States raise money from sales taxes and state income tax, and from taxes on gasoline, cars, liquor, tobacco and others. Nearly one-fifth of all state and local spending is financed by federal grants.

Most big cities have a system of government similar to that of the states and of the US, with a mayor as chief executive, elected separately from the council. Sometimes there may be a city manager, or a commission of three main departmental chiefs, responsible to the elected mayor and council.

Before the 19^th century the majority of people lived on farms or in villages, there were few towns, quite small – mainly markets and administrative centres. In the 19^th century some villages became towns, then cities; since about 1940 the main cities have (with exceptions) kept unchanged the boundaries, or city limits established by that time.

For each big town the Bureau of the Census now gives two populations figures, one for the administrative central city, the other for the whole “metropolitan area” (suburbs included”. Only a quarter of the people now live outside metropolitan areas, in small towns, villages and farms.

Thre-quarters of the people live in metropolitan areas with population of over 80,000 people. There are 300 such areas, each with a central city, and the whole of their territory is classes as “urban”. They consist mainly of suburbs. By now nearly twice as many people live in suburbs as in central cities.