Article The Ties That Bind: Community, Topos, and Municipal Dissolution

This article examines cases of municipal dissolution and the impact of the loss of government on a place, its people, and the surrounding area. A framework of three components of municipal community—people, place, and government—is presented. The interrelation of these elements is explored through cases where not all elements are present. Particular attention is given to the removal of government from community through municipal dissolution. The impacts of dissolution on community, and its potential as a governance strategy, are addressed. Keywords municipal dissolution, community, governance Much attention has been given to civic participation and the need to increase the public’s level of involvement in the governance of their communities (Candler & Dumont, 2010; Denhardt & Denhardt, 2007; Putnam, 2000). This scholarship locates people at the core of governance, emphasizing that with-out people, government cannot function. Less attention has been paid to the obverse: whether people can function without government. At the heart of both questions is the issue of what constitutes community. A variety of laws and processes dictate municipal existence; however, community transcend