|
The New England town is the basic unit of local government and local division of state authority in each of the six New England states. Without a direct counterpart in most other U.S. states, New England towns overlay the entire area of a state, similar to civil townships in other states where they exist, but are fully functioning municipal corporations, possessing powers similar to cities in other states; New Jersey's system of equally powerful townships, boroughs, towns and cities is the most similar system to New England's. New England towns are often governed by a town meeting legislative body. The great majority of municipal corporations in New England are based on the town model; statutory forms based on the concept of a compact populated place, which is prevalent elsewhere in the U.S., are uncommon. County government in New England states is typically weak, sometimes even nonexistent. Connecticut, for example, has no county governments, nor does Rhode Island.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Facts & History )〕 Both of those states retain counties only as geographic subdivisions with no governmental authority, while Massachusetts〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Historical Data Relating to the Incorporation of and Abolishment of Counties in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts )〕 has abolished eight of fourteen county governments so far. With few exceptions, counties serve mostly as dividing lines for the states' judicial systems. == Characteristics of the New England town system == * Towns are laid out so that nearly all land within the boundaries of a state is allocated to a town or other corporate municipality. Except in some very sparsely populated areas of the three northern New England states (primarily in the interior of New Hampshire and Maine), all land is incorporated into the bounds of a municipal corporation's territory, even in rural areas. * Towns are municipal corporations, with their powers defined by a combination of municipal corporate charter, state statutes, and the state constitution. Although they are divisions of the state, the laws regarding their authority have historically been very broadly construed. In practice, towns have significant autonomy in managing their own affairs, with nearly all of the powers that cities typically have in most other U.S. states. * Traditionally, a town's legislative body is the open town meeting, which is a form of direct democratic rule, with a board of selectmen possessing executive authority. Only several Swiss cantons with Landsgemeinde remain as democratic as the small New England town meetings.〔 〕 * A town almost always contains a built-up populated place (the "town center") with the same name as the town. Additional built-up places with different names are often found within towns, along with a mixture of additional urban and rural territory. There is no territory that is not part of a town between each town; leaving one town means entering another town or other municipality. In most parts of New England, towns are irregular in shape and size and are not laid out on a grid (the leading exception is Vermont, and much of the interior of Maine was originally laid out as surveyed townships). The town center often contains a town common, often used today as a small park. * Since virtually all residents live within the boundaries of a municipal corporation, residents receive most local services at the municipal level, and county government tends to provide few or no services. Differences among states do exist in the level of services provided at the municipal and county level, but generally most functions normally handled by county-level government in the rest of the United States are handled by town-level government in New England. In Connecticut, Rhode Island and most of Massachusetts, county government has been completely abolished, and counties serve merely as dividing lines for the judicial system. In other areas, some counties provide judicial and other limited administrative services. In many cases, the house numbers on rural roads in New England reset to zero upon crossing a town line. * Residents usually identify with their town for purposes of civic identity, thinking of the town in its entirety as a single, coherent community. There are some cases where residents identify more strongly with villages or sections of a town than with the town itself, but this is the exception, not the rule. * More than 90% of the municipalities in the six New England states are towns. Other forms of municipalities that exist—most notably, cities—are generally based on the town concept as well. Most New England cities are towns that have grown too large for a town meeting to be an effective legislative body, leading the residents to adopt a city form with a mayor and council. Municipal entities, based on the concept of a compact populated place, such as a village or borough, are uncommon. In areas of New England where such forms do exist, they remain part of the parent town and do not have all of the corporate powers and authority of an independent municipality. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「New England town」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|