Written by G. Ross Stephens   

Government in the U.S. is so fragmented, legally-limited, and complex with 90,114 plus constitutions, charters, and statutory governing systems that overlie one another it cannot function (one federal government, 50 states, 7 state-like entities, and more than 90,056 local).

The one area where our central government is unfettered, free to act with impunity, is war and national security. Four-fifths of all federal military and civilian employees and those employed on procurement contracts are involved in war and national security.

Domestic policy faces a maze of political dead ends; so constipated with miniscule polities, it’s rarely able to formulate basic public policies in the general public interest – a form of political arteriosclerosis. Many in the corporate sector want to keep it that way; a questionable policy for a civil society.

As a group these minor entities are socially, economically, and politically diverse; yet, internally often homogeneous making intergovernmental cooperation difficult, but easy for vertically integrated corporate behemoths to bamboozle political leaders.

An estimated 28,500 local governments (special districts, townships, municipalities, and a few school districts), operate with zero paid employees – nearly 1/3rd of all local units; almost 2/5ths excluding schools. Whatever services they provide, if any, are contracted out. These toy governments clutter up the political landscape.

Few county areas have only three overlying governments (federal-state-county). Most have from a dozen to over 500 local governments (Harris County, TX, 503; Cook County, IL, 536; 2012 Census of Governments). A number of governments have separation-of-powers (legislative, executive, and judicial) and many incorporate checks-and-balances (one branch negates others) – a prescription for inaction.

It’s not just numbers of governments, it’s also the number of government agencies that act independently based on different constitutional or statutory authority with at least 150 federal agencies, 6,000 at the state level, and an estimated 270,000 local layered on top of one another resulting in expensive, uncoordinated services, and/or lack of needed public services.

This is one reason the U.S. has more lawyers than the rest of the world combined. Attorneys are the dominant occupation in legislative bodies and a must-have occupation for both public and private sectors of the economy.

Factors constipating our political alimentary canal largely evolved since World War II: 1) important alterations in government structure, and 2) development of the structurally integrated economic behemoths that transcend political boundaries – multijurisdictional and multinational private corporations, master limited partnerships (MLPs). Multitudes of tax-exempt churches and non-profit corporations are often involved in the political process working as tools for private interests.

The largest, but least significant, change in local government since World War II is the consolidation of school district governments – declining 108,379 to 12,880 by 2012. Analyzing school consolidation in several metropolitan areas, the author found most rich districts consolidated with rich districts, middle-class with middle-class, and poor districts with poor districts negating the spread of taxable resources with no change in basic function.

Discounting the years of World War II, from the 1920s up through the 1970s, there were constant dollar and percentage increases in funding for public education by all levels of government. Public education took big hits in the 1980s with the promotion of so-called supply-side economics (Reaganomics) and again with the onset of the Great Recession of 2008.

Contributing to the decline of all local governments is the combined effect of tax cuts, tax abatements, TIFs (tax increment financing) benefitting private corporations, and the tripling of tax-free private entities (churches and non-profit corporations), increasing 750,000 to 2.5 million since 1980 (IRS, 2012; 1953 and 2012 Statistical Abstract).

County governments remained about the same, a little over 3,000, even though the state of Connecticut abolished counties as civil governments and a few elsewhere became city-counties.

Municipalities increased 16,778 to 19,519; townships declined 18,919 to 16,360. Most eliminated townships became municipalities or were absorbed by municipalities though 69 were abolished by the State of Washington.

The real change since World War II was the explosion of special districts governments, sometimes called authorities, up from 8,299 to 38,266 by 2012. Eighty-six percent perform but a single function. Most cater to special interest groups. Some are literally owned and operated by private corporations. Nearly all can levy service charges and issue municipal bonds; many have the power of eminent domain and can levy property and/or other taxes. Most cover multiple political jurisdictions (1942, 1948, 1957 - 2012 Census of Governments).

There are many more special districts operated by counties, municipalities, or townships that do not meet all Census criteria as independent governments, though their operation is usually segregated from their overlying government.

Prior to World War II most private corporations were indigenous to governments. since many, if not most, have become multijurisdict- ional or multinational, owing little allegiance to any level of government.

Between 1950 and 2007, constant dollar household income rose 8.5 times, corporate assets increased 15 times, indicating a major shift in resources as massive tax breaks were accorded the business sector.

Though only 40 percent of the tax base, research for the early 1980s indicated taxes on business explained from 71 to 84 percent of the differences among our fifty state-local systems in their ability to raise revenue. Taxes on personal income explained 20 to 33 percent. Yet, since 1980 there have been major shifts in taxation away from business and unearned income (capital gains and dividends) to earned personal income (salaries and wages) by all levels of government.

At least 37 of our largest vertically integrated corporate behemoths paid no federal corporate income taxes on net income of billions of dollars by 2010. Much of that income comes directly or indirectly from government spending and procurement contracts. In 2010 the U. S. Supreme Court gave corporations the right-to-vote with their money in our elections distorting the entire election process (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission).

Our massively fragmented federal system is not only sorely outdated, it’s a prescription for inaction on anything other than war and national security; so impotent it cannot cope with the major issues of the 21st Century or levy sufficient taxes to pay for governing a civil society.