Why New Cities Form

Abstract

Municipal incorporation can have profound impacts on the urban and political geography of the regions in which they incorporate. These impacts and declines in the rate of municipal formation lead to the question of why municipalities incorporate. The authors synthesize an overview and analysis of the historical literature with a media literature review to construct a comprehensive classification system of theories that explain municipal incorporations. Twelve new micromotives such as eligibility for government grants and economic development are identified. Moreover, the review surprisingly reveals that spatial motives, in contrast to service motives, play the largest role in new municipal incorporations.

Suburbs, Inc.: Exploring Municipal Incorporation as a Mechanism of Racial and Economic Exclusion in Suburban Communities

“…I examine municipal incorporation as a possible mechanism of racial and economic inequality in suburbia. Previous scholarship on incorporation clearly demonstrates that racial and economic exclusion are primary motivations and goals of incorporation (Danielson 1976;Fischel 2015;Musso 2001;Rice, Waldner, and Smith 2014). However, although exclusion may motivate incorporation, is it in fact an effective strategy?…”

“…Most research to date on incorporation has focused on the causes of and motivations for incorporation. This research identifies several factors that predict incorporation-such as trying to avoid annexation by a central city and dissatisfaction with county services (Leon-Moreta 2015b, 2015aRice, Waldner, and Smith 2014;Rigos and Spindler 1991)-but one is identified repeatedly across studies ranging in time frame and geographic scope: in the majority of cases, incorporation is wielded by White suburbanites as a strategy for racial and economic exclusion and resource hoarding. In other but rarer cases, incorporation is also used by communities of color as a strategy of self-determination.…”

Functional responsibilities of municipal government: Metropolitan disparities and instruments of intergovernmental management

“…Municipal incorporation is the most fundamental mechanism for enabling self-governing capacity for unincorporated communities (Rice et al, 2014). When incorporation is viable, an unincorporated community attains that independent capacity through the incorporation of a municipal government.…”

“…Developing those structures, however, is costly and requires time; in their first years, municipalities focus on establishing their housekeeping functions. Newly incorporated municipalities first develop core governmental functions, such as public safety, land use regulation, and administrative functions (Rice et al, 2014). Subsequently, municipalities are able to extend their breadth of functional responsibilities.…”

“…Owing to demand for services, and longevity, the functional responsibilities of municipalities will increase over time. In their early years of incorporation, municipalities promptly expand resources to meet the demand for services (Rice et al, 2014). The influence of institutional longevity, however, takes place primarily in the first years; that is, the effect of longevity would be more pronounced among newly incorporated municipalities and gradually level off among older municipalities.…”