Excerpt from The Government of European Cities The purpose of this volume is to explain, in a general way, the structure and functions of city government in three European countries, and to contrast these, wherever they may be appropriately compared, with the structure and functions of city government in the United States. It has been my aim to describe who the city authorities are, how they are chosen, what they do, and how they do it; but not to examine in detail the physical operation of municipal services or the minutiae of municipal administration. Considerable attention has been devoted to the relations of the civic and state authorities in each of these countries; for the writer believes that this is one of the most important of all the phases of local administration. The book is intended to afford an introduction to the study of European city governments, and no attempt has been made to deal in exhaustive fashion with any aspect of the subject. To bring the narrative within reasonable compass it has been necessary to omit many matters of some importance, and to deal in a paragraph with other things which might well have a page. With this in mind an endeavor has been made to indicate in the footnotes convenient sources from which further information may be drawn by readers who may become interested in any part of the general field. In the task of preparing the volume I have received generous and valued assistance from many quarters. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.