CENTRALIZATION AND URBAN SERVICES: THE AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCE

The effect on the distribution of urban services of the “geographical fragmentation” of American metropolitan areas into many local government jurisdictions, each with important service responsibilities, is often overlooked. Comparison with Australia, where services are generally administered and financed at the State level, is instructive. Australian centralism tends to have an equalizing effect, largely due to bureaucratic patterns of service delivery, but has also produced both an insensitivity to specialized local factors and an “organizational fragmentation.” Developments in the 1970s suggest improvements in these areas of deficiency.     

A Review, Comparison, and Evaluation of Some State & Local Data Handbooks

Bureau of the Census, 1972 Census of Governments
Bureau of the Census, Local Government Finances in Selected Metropolitan Areas and Large Counties: 1974–75
Bureau of the Census, City Government Finances in 1974–75
International City Management Association, The Municipal Year-book, 1977
Paul Albright, ed., The Book of the States, 1976–77