In lessons in community and national life: 

Series B:  Lesson 19, The commission form of government and the city manager.

Hart, A.B., Actual Government, Part iv, Local government in action.

Reed, T.H., Form and Functions of American Government, Part iv, Local government.

CHAPTER XXVI

OUR STATE GOVERNMENTS

SOURCE OF GOVERNING POWER

When the thirteen original states were colonies, they derived their governing powers from charters granted to them by the king, as cities and some counties are granted charters by the state.  When they won their independence the people of each state substituted a constitution for the charter; the difference between a charter and a constitution being that the former is given to the people by some higher authority, while the latter is adopted by the people themselves.  All of our states alike, whether created before or after the Union was formed, are self-governing under constitutions of their own making.

Counties and towns, cities and villages, have no powers of self-government except those granted to them by the state.  The national government, also, may exercise only such powers as are given to it by the people voting as states.  Each state, on the other hand, is self-governing in its own right, and may exercise through its government any power whatever, excepting only those which it voluntarily surrendered upon entering the Union. (See pp. 94, 449; also Constitution, Art.  I, Sec. 10 and Art.  IV.)

THE STATE CONSTITUTION

The state constitution is the supreme law of the state and is supposed to represent the direct voice of the people.  Since the Union was formed, state constitutions have been framed by conventions of delegates elected especially for the purpose, and in most cases have been submitted to the people for their ratification.  Amendments may be proposed either by such conventions or by the state legislatures, but they must also be ratified by the people.  Some of the states have completely revised their constitutions several times, and amendments have been very numerous.

CAUSE OF LENGTH OF STATE CONSTITUTIONS

State constitutions are long documents, containing a great deal of detail regarding the organization and powers of government.  In this respect they differ from the national Constitution, which is brief and speaks in broad, general terms.  Recent constitutions are longer than earlier ones, partly because there is a greater variety of problems to be dealt with, but also because of a growing tendency to limit the powers of legislatures and administrative officers.