Satan's Invisible World Displayed; or, Despairing Democracy: A Study of Greater New YorkStead, W. T. (William Thomas)
History
Satan's Invisible World Displayed; or, Despairing Democracy: A Study of Greater New York
Stead, W. T. (William Thomas)
New York (N.Y.) -- Politics and government; Police -- New York (State) -- New York
The better results flowing from this theory are easily made clear.
Americans are sufficiently adept in the administration of large
business enterprises to understand that, in any such undertaking, some
one man must be given the power of direction and the choice of his
chief assistants; they understand that power and responsibility must
go together from the top to the bottom of every successful business
organisation. Consequently, when it began to be realised that a city
was a business corporation rather than an integral part of the State,
the unwillingness to organise the city upon the line of concentrated
power in connection with concentrated responsibility began to
disappear. The charter of the city of Brooklyn is probably as advanced
a type as can be found of the results of this mode of thinking. In
Brooklyn the executive side of the city government is represented by
the mayor and the various heads of departments. The legislative side
consists of a common council of nineteen members, twelve of whom are
elected from three districts, each having four aldermen, the remaining
seven being elected, as aldermen at large by the whole city. The
people elect three city officers, besides the board of aldermen--the
mayor, who is the real as well as the nominal head of the city, the
comptroller, who is practically the book-keeper of the city, and the
auditor, whose audit is necessary for the payment of every bill
against the city, whether large or small. The mayor appoints
absolutely, without confirmation by the common council, all the
executive heads of departments. He appoints, for example, the police
commissioner, the commissioner of city works, the corporation counsel
or counsellor at law, the city treasurer, the tax collector, and, in
general, all the officials who are charged with executive duties.
These officials, in turn, appoint their own subordinates, so that the
principle of defined responsibility permeates the city government from
top to bottom. The mayor also appoints the board of assessors, the
board of education, and the board of elections. The executive officers
appointed by the mayor are appointed for a term of two years--that is
to say, for a term similar to his own.--Bryce’s “American
Commonwealth,” vol. i.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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