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Texas Politics

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Running Head: Texas Politics 1

Texas Politics

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Texas Politics 2

Fundamental differences between weak mayor, strong mayor, and council-manager forms

of government

In the US today, local governments are governed in different administrative forms which include

a weak mayor form of governance, strong mayor, and council-manager forms of administration.

In a weak-mayor system of governance, the major authority lies with the council. The mayor has

no power to make decisions and cannot assign or fire any official from office. A weak mayor has

no control over budgeting in any way. A weak mayor influence is solely based on their

personality to push for desired achievements. A strong mayor form of governance, on the other

hand, consists of a mayor who has executive powers and in most cases elected by the people.

This form of governance also has a legislative arm of council members. In a strong mayor, the

elected leader has almost total control of administrative power, with major political

independence and the power to appoint and fire heads of department with little or no council

interference or approval. The strong mayor is also in-charge of budget preparation and

administration though in most cases council approval is required. A Council-manager form of

local government has become one of the most common in the U.S today. In this form of

government, the elected council holds legislative and policy-making power but employs a

professional city manager to run the administrative functions. The manager, in this case, is not an

elected leader but draws their power, functions, and authority from the council.

Of the three forms of administration, I would prefer a council-manager form of governance. In

this form of administration, the local government is administered professionally by the appointed

manager while the council maintains its legislative functions function. The strong-mayor form of

governance is open to abuse since the mayor holds much of the powers with little supervision.

The weak-mayor form of administration denies the council an absolute leader who can be a voice

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Running Head: Texas Politics 1 Texas Politics Name Tutors’ name Institution Date Texas Politics 2 Fundamental differences between weak mayor, strong mayor, and council-manager forms of government In the US today, local governments are governed in different administrative forms which include a weak mayor form of governance, strong mayor, and council-manager forms of administration. In a weak-mayor system of governance, the major authority lies with the council. The mayor has no power to make decisions and cannot assign or fire any official from office. A weak mayor has no control over budgeting in any way. A weak mayor influence is solely based on their personality to push for desired achievements. A strong mayor form of governance, on the other hand, consists of a mayor who has executive powers and in most cases elected by the people. This form of governance also has a legisl ...
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