Texas counties

[EastAnglianLefty]

Would there be any need for deputies assigned to Mentone?

So far as I can see, the best argument for maintaining the current county map is that the counties don't actually do enough for a re-organisation to be worth it.

[EastAnglianLefty]

Yes, but the reason there's no need for change is that they don't provide many services, and the services they do provide are of marginal enough importance that restructuring is a waste of effort.

[EastAnglianLefty]

I can't say I really care, given that I live several thousand miles away, have never visited west Texas and have no burning desire to do so.. But where a general reorganisation of administrative sub-divisions has been carried out in other nations in recent years, it's usually been because those sub-divisions provide major services (housing; transport; economic co-ordination etc.) to their residents and hence need to match up to the day to day horizons of their residents. None of those services are really provided by the counties at the moment, nor is there any obvious reason they might do so in future. So the case for a change basically comes down to wanting to fiddle about with maps.

[EastAnglianLefty]

I can't say I really care, given that I live several thousand miles away, have never visited west Texas and have no burning desire to do so.. But where a general reorganisation of administrative sub-divisions has been carried out in other nations in recent years, it's usually been because those sub-divisions provide major services (housing; transport; economic co-ordination etc.) to their residents and hence need to match up to the day to day horizons of their residents. None of those services are really provided by the counties at the moment, nor is there any obvious reason they might do so in future. So the case for a change basically comes down to wanting to fiddle about with maps.

Housing and transport aren't really governmental services. There are regional council of governments that coordinate programs and services to address needs that cross jurisdictional boundaries Texas Regional Councils (PDF) But those are more cooperative - associations for discussions, with perhaps some service to the county and city members - as opposed to the general public (GIS, office supplies, IT support).

The England doesn't really have the concept of local self-government since it was historically governed by the King, thus organization of sub-divisions may be viewed simply as reshuffling HM Bureaucracy.

Housing and transport may not be governmental services in Texas, but there are plenty of places in the world where housing and transport are provided/administered by local government.

Your last paragraph is a non-sequitur, but given that Texas counties were set up under the auspices of the state rather than on the independent say-so of the residents, I'm not even sure how that's meaningfully different.

[EastAnglianLefty]

I can't say I really care, given that I live several thousand miles away, have never visited west Texas and have no burning desire to do so.. But where a general reorganisation of administrative sub-divisions has been carried out in other nations in recent years, it's usually been because those sub-divisions provide major services (housing; transport; economic co-ordination etc.) to their residents and hence need to match up to the day to day horizons of their residents. None of those services are really provided by the counties at the moment, nor is there any obvious reason they might do so in future. So the case for a change basically comes down to wanting to fiddle about with maps.

Housing and transport aren't really governmental services. There are regional council of governments that coordinate programs and services to address needs that cross jurisdictional boundaries Texas Regional Councils (PDF) But those are more cooperative - associations for discussions, with perhaps some service to the county and city members - as opposed to the general public (GIS, office supplies, IT support).

The England doesn't really have the concept of local self-government since it was historically governed by the King, thus organization of sub-divisions may be viewed simply as reshuffling HM Bureaucracy.

Housing and transport may not be governmental services in Texas, but there are plenty of places in the world where housing and transport are provided/administered by local government.

Your last paragraph is a non-sequitur, but given that Texas counties were set up under the auspices of the state rather than on the independent say-so of the residents, I'm not even sure how that's meaningfully different.

You may misunderstand the concept of local self-government. It does not mean that the local government is sovereign, but rather than voters of a locality choose who governs themselves.

Which, given that Britain does not in fact have an absolute monarchy, would mean that your original statement was complete nonsense.

[EastAnglianLefty]

That certainly answers my remaining questions about your knowledge of UK local government.