The Growth of Local Government

With devolution, power continues to shift away from federal, down to state, and now into local city and county government bodies.  The number of local government employees has increased from 3.3 million employees in 1946 to nearly 18.7 million today:  That’s a 467 percent increase in capacity, while our population increased just 104 percent during that same period. Throughout the 1990’s, the number of state and local government employees increased by over 17 percent, compared to a decrease at the federal level.

As the Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA) notes, State legislatures evaluate over 150,000 bills each year and pass more than 25,000 into law.  For every one law that Congress passes, state legislatures typically pass seventy-five.  Likewise, for every single state legislator, there are 66 more city, county and local elected officials passing local ordinances.  We should not continue to ignore the fastest growing and largest segment of government in this country.

A Changing Leadership Demographic

The demographic of local leadership is also evolving.  According to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, the largest increase in elected black leaders   –   over 150 offices   –   occurred in municipal posts.  The center has been tracking this number since 1970, when African-Americans only held 1,469 elected positions nationwide, compared with 8,936 positions nationwide in 1999.    That’s an increase of 600 percent in less than three decades.

During the 1990’s, black mayors were elected in more than 375 cities and towns across the country.  More importantly, black officials also began to be elected in cities with less than 25 percent African-American population, including Minneapolis, Columbus, Denver, and Arlington. Out of these 375 mayoral leaders, 80 were women. In fact, black women now represent over a third of all black elected officials, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. 

Women leaders are also a growing demographic.  In 1973, fewer than 2 percent of cities had any female mayors.  Thirty years later, the number has risen to over 220, or nearly 20 percent of all mayors in cities with 30,000 or more people.   Over the past thirty years, women went from one out of fifty to one out of five of U.S. Mayors.   The 1992 Census of Governments also shows almost a quarter of local government officials are female.  

As the demographic of local electeds continues to shift and better reflect the general make up of our country’s population, we should capitalize on this diversity by offering corresponding best practices and appropriate leadership development training.

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