The Boston finance commission

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University, 1941One of the most outstanding trends in American government has been the steady growth of centralized authority both in the sphere of the national government and of the several states. There are several important factors to account for this, the chief of which is the increase in the number of problems which transcend sectional and local boundaries. Almost from the earliest days of our history as a nation the states have exercised various degrees and kinds of control over the local governments existing within their boundaries. There are three main types of control used: constitutional, legislative, and administrative. Of these the least desirable is the constitutional control; the most prevalent, the legislative control; and the one which carries with it the most hope for a successful answer to the problem of state-local relationships in certain fields in administrative control or supervision. It is with this last type that we are particularly interested. There is wide variance among the states in the methods and techniques and also in the purposes. In some instances administrative devices are used exert real control which restricts local discretion considerably. In other instances, the administrative device is used to provide information to the legislature as a possible basis for the exercise of further legislative control. The subject of this study illustrates in some measure the used of the last-mentioned above. However, it is unique in many respects and cannot be fitted into typical forms