The Emerging Roles of County Governments in Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Areas: Findings From a National Survey

During the past few decades, local governments have extended the scope of their activities in response to changing economic and political conditions. By and large, research on local governments neglects counties, now the fastest growing general-purpose governments. This article examines counties’roles in economic development and public service activities and reports on findings from a national survey of county governments with broad generalizability and a relatively high response rate across metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. Counties provide important services that promote local economic development, enhance human capital, and serve social safety net functions. In accordance with literature on decentralization, the scope of these activities is reported to have grown with the passage of time. Relative to other counties, however, nonmetro counties provide fewer economic development and other public services and are less likely to have increased their role in these activities over time. The article examines reasons for these metro-nonmetro differences.