<P> It is common for residents of major U.S. metropolitan areas to live under six or more layers of special districts as well as a town or city, and a county or township . In turn, a typical metro area often consists of several counties, several dozen towns or cities, and a hundred (or more) special districts . In one state, California, the fragmentation problem became so bad that in 1963 the California Legislature created Local Agency Formation Commissions in 57 of the state's 58 counties; that is, government agencies to supervise the orderly formation and development of other government agencies . One effect of all this complexity is that victims of government negligence occasionally sue the wrong entity and do not realize their error until the statute of limitations has run against them . </P> <P> Because efforts at direct consolidation have proven futile, U.S. local government entities often form "councils of governments", "metropolitan regional councils", or "associations of governments". These organizations serve as regional planning agencies and as forums for debating issues of regional importance, but are generally powerless relative to their individual members . Since the late 1990s, "a movement, frequently called' New Regionalism', accepts the futility of seeking consolidated regional governments and aims instead for regional structures that do not supplant local governments ." </P> <P> Unlike the relationship of federalism that exists between the U.S. government and the states (in which power is shared), municipal governments have no power except what is granted to them by their states . This legal doctrine, called Dillon's Rule, was established by Judge John Forrest Dillon in 1872 and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Hunter v. Pittsburgh, 207 U.S. 161 (1907), which upheld the power of Pennsylvania to consolidate the city of Allegheny into the city of Pittsburgh, despite the wishes of the majority of Allegheny residents . </P> <P> In effect, state governments can place whatever restrictions they choose on their municipalities (including merging municipalities, controlling them directly, or abolishing them outright), as long as such rules don't violate the state's constitution . However, Dillon's Rule does not apply in all states of the United States, because some state constitutions provide specific rights for municipalities and counties . </P>

At what level are the states located in the federal system of government answers.com