THE LOCAL-GOVERNMENT BOUNDARY-PROBLEM IN METROPOLITAN-AREAS

Local government boundaries play an important role in the governance o f metropolitan areas by defining local electorates and tar bases and t he scope of local regulatory powers and service responsibilities. Yet, the close association of local powers with local boundaries generates spillovers, fiscal disparities, and interlocal conflicts. Real local autonomy is constrained but the local government system fails to provi de a means for addressing regional problems. Public choice theorists a nd political decentralizationists oppose regional governments because of the threat to local autonomy that would result from removing powers from local hands. Richard Briffault's solution to the metropolitan go vernance problem is a ''mixed strategy'' that would both reduce the si gnificance of existing local boundaries and create elected regionally bounded governments to address matters of regional significance. In hi s regime, small local governments would remain units for local decisio nmaking. But regional political institutions, with regional land use a nd fiscal powers, would provide an opportunity for regionwide delibera tion, popular participation in decisions of regional significance, and the framing and implementation of policies addressed to the needs of the region as a whole.