The first volume of this report examined the various substate districting approaches taken by the Federal, State, and local governments since the early 1960's to meet the need for effective areawide solutions to the problems resulting from rapid population growth and technological change. The Federal government assumed a leadership role in reorganizing local government structure through its financial and administrative support for regional councils, A-95 clearinghouses, and areawide functional planning agencies. This support was largely a response to the failure of most State and local efforts to fill the institutional vacuum existing at the regional level. Yet these Federally encouraged bodies were not governments; their major functional responsibilities were planning, communications, coordination, and grant-in-aid administration.

As indicated in the introductory chapter of Volume I, these recent districting activities have been characterized by fragmentation, ambivalence, and incrementalism. In the absence of a clear and consistent substate regionalism policy to guide districting under Federal and State auspices, the polycentric political system found in most metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas was further fractionalized by the proliferation of single and multi-purpose areawide bodies. As a result, the typical metropolitan area now contains a regional council or A-95 clearinghouse and three or four functional substate districts, in addition to nearly 90 general and special purpose local governmental units.

These trends have been viewed with growing concern by city and county elected officials and governmental reformers. Some feel that districts are well insulated and unresponsive areawide bureaucracies which divert needed financial resources away from local governments and dilute the influence of cities. and counties in regional, State, and Federal programs. Others consider them a new breed of special district which, while representing an economically feasible way to perform certain services, could well impede progress toward major local governmental restructuring.

Some observers have a more positive assessment

of these trends. To them districting is a critical transitional stage leading ultimately to more effective regional governance structures. Umbrella regional councils in particular are thought to have the potential to become major institutional catalysts. At the same time, they recognize that in light of the meager accomplishments to date in some places, districting may well be the only politically viable way to meet areawide needs.

The mushrooming of districts and the accompanying debate over the proper nature and direction of local relationships and responsibilities in substate regionalism has detracted attention from the traditional methods of dealing cooperatively with interjurisdictional problems. The principal local options include intergovernmental service agreements, functional transfers, the urban county, areawide special districts, annexation, city-county consolidation, and federation. Also often overlooked is the States' role in coming to grips with local fragmentation through boundary adjustment agencies; mandatory performance of functions; assessment of local political, economic, and social viability; and other actions. And, of course, the Federal government's financial incentives and requirements have had significant implications in terms of the structure and operations of local governments.

The above approaches vary widely in the degree of their jurisdictional coverage, functional scope, application to urban and rural areas, and institutional restructuring potential. Moreover, they have not been uniformly or consistently applied on an agency or statewide basis. Yet this "patchwork" arrangement has been successful in preventing the collapse of the fragmented local governmental system.

The purpose of this volume is to examine the various traditional methods of regional cooperation and local and areawide governmental reorganization and to assess their desirability and practicality in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. The relationship between districting and reorganization will be analyzed, and recommendations will be made to guide Federal, State, and local policymakers in establishing a more effective regional governance process.