Fundamental concepts in considering home rule for New England towns and cities.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityThis dissertation is basically a study of the nature of the state-local constitutional relationship and division of powers in the various New England states, past, present and prospective. The problem with which it is concerned is the definition of the constitutional and legal status of the New England municipality in general, and the New England town in particular. The principle medium used to explore this relationship is the New England political or social myth-like concept of local independence, however conceived and in whatever guise. This concept is traced from its historical origins in the independent actions of the colonial New England towns, through the facts and theories accompanying the centralization of the nineteenth century, to present day home rule and allied movements and theories in the New England states. [TRUNCATED