TY - BOOK ID - 66994113 TI - Imperfect union : representation and taxation in multilevel governments PY - 2009 SN - 9780521764735 0521764734 9780521758352 0521758351 9780511808524 9780511651885 0511651880 0511808526 1107194067 9786612393846 1282393847 0511647808 0511632762 0511631553 0511633963 PB - Cambridge: Cambridge university press, DB - UniCat KW - Special districts KW - Local finance KW - Social Sciences KW - Political Science KW - Special districts - United States KW - Local finance - United States UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:66994113 AB - Imperfect Union offers the first political theory of special purpose jurisdictions, which constitute the most common form of local government in the United States today. Collectively, special purpose governments have more civilian employees than the federal government and spend more than all city governments combined. The proliferation of special purpose jurisdictions has fundamentally altered the nature of representation and taxation in local government. Citizens today are commonly represented by dozens - in some cases hundreds - of local officials in multiple layers of government. As a result, political participation in local elections is low and special interest groups associated with each function exert disproportionate influence. With multiple special-interest governments tapping the same tax base, the local tax base takes on the character of a common-pool resource, leading to familiar problems of overexploitation. Strong political parties can often mitigate the common-pool problem by informally coordinating the policies of multiple overlapping governments. ER -