Reference no: EM132166418

You provide and interesting discussion that our country's current gun laws are both a successful and unsuccessful vertical relationship between local, state and federal governmental entities. It’s important to keep in mind that there’s no clear line between the ways municipalities and their state interact. According to Green, 2013, a charter city or home rule city is another type interaction between cities and it functions more autonomously from state laws and regulations. These cities have a charter establishing how government will be structured, what its duties are, and what local ordinances will be. Green asserts, that the process for creating a charter or revising an existing charter varies from state to state. Any municipality with a charter is still subject to state laws, however. It might have more authority to deal with local issues, but any laws it sets are subject to the state law and constitution. Even in the places that have home rule, they might sometimes feel more like a general law city if the state is aggressive with the amount of legislation it passes impacting local policies and authority (2013).

However, we still do not know much about what motivates communities to collaborate (Carr, Gerber, & Lupher, 2009), nor do we know if the theoretical shift in emphasis from regional to interlocal planning has been accompanied by a similar enthusiasm for interlocal land use planning agreements in practice. Furthermore, collaboration is inherently spatial. To collaborate, a local government needs partners—neighboring jurisdictions, counties, or regional organizations—with which to collaborate. A local government may also need other resources provided by neighboring jurisdictions or organizations to facilitate collaboration, including information, leadership, capacity, experience, and evidence of best practices. In each case, proximity matters: the availability of partners, information and resources will depend to a large extent on geographic location (Post, 2002). How do you think a state and local government’s interaction can impact everything from how finances are handled to how public utility decisions are made? What issues or conflicts might arise from divisions of power between state and federal governments? Use examples.