Title: The Case for Local Government | RealClearPolicy
Headings: The Case for Local Government
The Case for Local Government
By Michael Hendrix
March 04, 2019

Content: In this way, municipalities, along with the states, help devolve authority away from the federal government and keep power from becoming too concentrated in Washington — or at least that’s how it’s supposed to work. Assigning responsibility to the smallest and lowest units of competent authority yields better governance, if not always better government. Embracing local government doesn’t eliminate all the challenges inherit in democratic governance, including disagreement, and even conflict and corruption. Nevertheless, local governments are better positioned than national governments to tackle particular challenges within their own contexts. Local knowledge is the feedstock of good governance, even if it does not always produce perfect policies. At the very least, being so close to a relatively small electorate — both in terms of decision making and revenue — helps elected leaders voice the tune of their constituency. Citizens, in turn, feel a sense of empowerment from active participation in local government, which ideally leads to more civic engagement. This is how municipalities become schoolhouses of democracy. As Alexis de Tocqueville put it, “a nation may establish a free government, but without municipal institutions it cannot have a spirit of liberty.” Self-government?