Imperfect union

Berry offers the first work of political theory devoted to special purpose jurisdictions. Roughly 35,000 special districts and 13,500 school districts make up the most widespread type of local government in America, and together they employ more civilian workers than the federal government while outspending all American city governments combined.

The spread of these jurisdictions has changed how local government represents people and how it taxes them. In many places a resident answers to dozens, sometimes hundreds, of officials across several overlapping layers of government. Turnout in local elections tends to be low, and the interest groups tied to each function wield influence far out of proportion to their numbers.

When many special-interest governments draw on the same tax base, that base starts to behave like a shared resource that everyone can draw down, and the familiar result is overuse. The author argues that strong political parties can often counter this problem by quietly aligning the policies of the various overlapping governments.