Counties generally fulfill three service roles: traditional or state-mandated; local or municipal; and regional or urban. Benton has written the first scholarly treatment of county governments as providers of all three of these types of services, dispelling the notion that counties are mere providers of services they are mandated to perform by their state governments. County governments in the United States have become increasingly important as service providers over the past several decades, vis-a-vis municipalities and townships. These services change over time and vary from region to...

Unlike other works in the field, "Intergovernmental Relations and Public Policy" deals with all levels of intergovernmental relations in the United States. Following an introductory section on the intergovernmental setting of public-policy, the book explores federal-state, state-local, and federal-state-local relations. There are discussions of health and safety, natural resources and environmental regulatory policy, federal aid programs, state small community development programs, and many other areas of current concern. Each of the fifteen chapters examines a significant development in...