Counting on Counties : How the Creation of Three Thousand Counties Shaped Local Government Across America

Counties are America’s most stable and ubiquitous unit of local government. Their origins and dual roles in state and local government resulted from promotion by landowners, who wanted their property included in or near a county seat, and early state governments, which sought to populate, regulate, and tax their territory. The proliferation of counties that resulted concluded a century ago, and counties settled into three regional roles: near irrelevance in the North, default local governments in the West, and instruments of state control in the South. These differences are the result of continental variations in climate and topography and the historical legacy of slavery