The Supreme Court and Policy Formation
| Author | J.A.C. Grant |
| Published date | 01 September 1961 |
| Date | 01 September 1961 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/106591296101400358 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
41
Decentralization
as
well
as
centralization
of
decision-making
takes
place
in
metropolitan
areas.
The
incorporation
of
a
city
transfers
a
variety
of
powers
to
local
control
which
were
formerly
centralized
in
the
county
or
special
districts
as
well
as
adds
another
center
of
power
to
the
area-wide
decision-making
system.
However,
the
availability
of
urban
levels
of
service
tends
to
inhibit
urban
populations
in
county
territory
from
incorporating
as
cities.
In
turn,
these
unincorporated
communities
will
exert
pressure
for
the
county
to
provide
higher
levels
of
service
and
for
the
creation
of
special
districts.
As
the
population
agglomeration
increases,
incorporation
does
take
place
and,
as
in
centralization,
reflects
efforts
by
decision-makers
to
control
external-
ities.
The
option
to
incorporate
is
utilized
when
local
actors
perceive
that
the
existing
centralized
decision-making
system
at
the
county
or
special
district
level
will
no
longer
maintain
a
locally
preferred
state
of
affairs
as
in
the
case
of
annexation
threats
or
zoning
changes
by
the
county.
Also
the
ability
to
gain
private
goals
through
control
of
municipal
corporate
powers
will
cause
decentralization
as
in
the
case
of
organizing
a
&dquo;tax
island&dquo;
city.
Once
a
community
incorporates,
it
tends
to
continue
to
use
the
county
or
special
districts
for
the
production
of
services
through
contracts
or
district
mem-
bership.
Also,
cities
will
seek
to
make
additional
producers
available
and
cap-
ture
external
economies
of
scale
by
their
use.
By
reducing
or
eliminating
the
initial
capital
costs
normally
incurred
at
incorporation
and
by
providing
econ-
omies
of
scale,
external
producers
make
possible
the
organization
of
cities
which
would
otherwise
find
the
costs
of
such
action
prohibitive
because
of
limited
local
economic
resources.
Centralization
of
production
of
services
tends
to
decentralize
decision-making
by
facilitating
the
incorporation
of
cities.
Additional
centralization
of
the
production
of
services
is,
in
turn,
facilitated
by
municipalities
seeking
to
maximize
external
economies
of
scale.
By
dealing
with
what is
rather
than
what
should
be
in
a
metropolitan
area,
the
multinucleated
system
of
government
is
found
to
be
neither
&dquo;empty,&dquo;
irrational,
nor
unproductive
of
change.
The
jurisdictions
in
an
area,
though
formally
independent
of
each
other,
represent
an
interdependent
system
of
re-
lationships
with
predictable
patterns
of
behavior
which
foster
the
centralization
of
some
powers,
the
decentralization
of
others,
and
which
tend
to
inhibit
the
organization
of
a
single
centralized
metropolitan
area
government.
Some
Professional
Interpretations
of
Some
Judicial
Interpretations*
THE
SUPREME
COURT
AND
POLICY
FORMATION
J.
A.
C.
GRANT
University
of
California,
Los
Angeles
Our
very
definition
of
the
common
law
as
judge-made
law
recognizes
that
the
courts
have
always
played
a
pre-eminent
role
in
lawmaking.
But
my
x
Abstract
of
paper
on
&dquo;American
Constitutional
Law
in
an
Age
of
Anxiety&dquo;
by
Kenneth
Cole,
University
of
Washington,
not
available
for
publication.
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