The next section of my book spoke about what the author refers to as "long-term significance" of local government and the reason, over and above previous reasons, why he believes local government to be so important. The primary manifestation of this theory is that local government serves as a "testing ground" both personally and ideologically for state and national politics. That is to say that many national level politicians began their careers at a local level, they would fall into the author's second category of local politicians: those that are using local government as a stepping stone to higher office. For these individuals local politics acts as a screening process that prevents incompetent or dishonest officials from rising to higher office (at least theoretically). If people are less aware of local politics than it is far easier for unsavory individuals to climb the ranks of local politics until they reach higher office. The same process repeats on a theoretical level with many federal and state government policies originating at the local level before spreading. Furthermore, many political parties ideologies and movements originate at the local level before eventually having national or even international significance. The author's view of this phenomenon, one I agree with is that the direct importance of local government is not the only reason why people should participate, its long-term importance alone provides a reason for increased awareness.

The next section of the book that I read focused on how participation in local government can be improved. The author’s recommendations focus upon increasing awareness though the ways suggested in the book: publicly financed television ads and more advertised (through flyers) town meetings seem somewhat underwhelming. We are already bombarded by so many political television ads and flyers that we mostly tune them out. This is one area where I feel my senior project could make a real difference. Educating students about the role and value of local government could increase citizen participation from an early age. One challenge that the author mentioned was that local officials (as you mentioned in your comment) may not be in favor of increased voter awareness/participation. The author argued that there exist three types of local government employees. The first category is those who are using local office as a stepping stone to fulfill greater political ambitions. The second category are those who genuinely want to help a community in which they have a personal stake. These first two categories both want increased participation, in order to increase their personal publicity and increase the profile of issues they care about respectively. The third category of official is the problem. This category consists of elected officials who are not genuinely invested in the community and do not want career advancement. They merely want the power, influence (and often salary) that comes with a local government position. There is no incentive whatsoever for these people, and they are often the most powerful, to increase citizen awareness of local government.

Mr. Fischer, the next section of the book provides one possible answer to your question. According to the authors people have no power in local government because they choose not to participate in it and they chose not to participate in it because they are under the impression (whether it is right or wrong) than local government is not important. The authors maintain that there is somewhat of a paradoxical quality to this situation. in many cases local government is not important because no one cares, no one cares because they do not think its important, no one participates so they have no power and no-one has any power because there is no power to be had in an impotent government. While this section was interesting it failed to enumerate what powers local governments actually have. Most school functions (I think) are controlled by local government and as these control not only the value of education but also the value of property I would think they would stimulate interest in local government. I also received the general impression that it is ordinary people and not politicians who drive local decisions. People who run for school board do not typically have high political aspirations, as a result they are unlikely to affect dramatic changes. It is only in communities where people are invovled and where they push their officials that real acitvity occurrs on a local level. To me, communities with lots of children (and a higher emphasis on education) would be a primary example of this phenomenon. However, Brookline is such a community and to my knowedge there is very limited involvement in local politics. It would be interesting to delve further into this topic and discover if people in Brookline are involved in politics but more subtly than I had first imagined.

For my senior paper project I am reading the book "Local Politics" by Terry Christensen and Tom Hogen-Esch. In the first hundred pages the book describes the basic structures of town governments: town meetings, mayors, town councils, school boardse etc. It drives home the point that town governments are arguably one of our most idiosyncratic governing institutions. Depending of the town real political power may rest with any group or individual. Some towns have even created unique institutions with seemingly random distribution of authority. However, while the distribution of local legal political power might seem random the authors do point out that there are some common denominators. The first of which is that political power in towns is determined not so much by what position one holds as by how much one cares to exert influence. In most town governments very few people bother to vote let alone run for office. From my experience Brookline seems to mirror this trend. Many Brookline town officials ran unopposed in the last election. According to Christensen and Hogen-Esch this means that holding elected office is not a prerequisite for holding and wielding political power. Showing up at a town meeting with two a handful of friends and supporters can be enough to alter a local policy. Such a situation exists because most people don’t care about local governance. Whether this is important is an issue that I hope will be addressed later in the book. If nothing of consequence is decided in local governmental institutions that there is no point in caring. However, if important decisions are made the increased participation in local governance would be beneficial to all.