The City and the Constitution: A Historical Analysis of Institutional Evolution and Adaptation

ABSTRACT:

This article traces the application of the principles of separation of powers and checks and balances to municipal government. While the original thinking behind these Constitutional principles intended to contain individual power and create a mechanism for institutional balance, analysis of urban institutional history indicates that their application to the urban context contributed to accelerated growth of mayoral power at the expense of the local council. The movement toward executive-centered government culminated during the Progressive Era of municipal reform. The reform model of government that emerged early in this century set the basic structure of the modern municipality and redefined the fundamental issues of democratic governance that were originally articulated in the U.S. Constitution.