"Martin Hotze" wrote in message
...
but every citizen is directly affected by their decisions. so they
are rather important, IMVHO

I suppose it depends on your definition of "important". Municipal
governments generally are in the business of providing services (parks,
police, fire, utilities, etc.), with some zoning oversight thrown in (e.g.
don't construct a building that might kill someone). They are NOT generally
in the business of restricting basic rights or setting social policy.

The federal government, on the other hand...

In this context, I'm using "important" to describe politicians who can
significantly and negatively affect what I feel are basic concepts of
freedom. Municipal governments theoretically could attempt similar
interference in individual rights, but they are much easier to overthrow,
and so they do a better job taking care of the people they're supposed to be
taking care of.

Of course, the larger the municipality, the less this is true. Major cities
(1 million residents or more) often feel more like the individual is
impotent, while relatively small cities (10,000 residents or fewer) depend
on each and every citizen to set policy and to run the city.

I find it ironic, actually...the portions of our government that have the
most power, and are the hardest to avoid, are also the ones that are the
most difficult to change.

Pete