rd governmental decentralization is fueled by a variety of social and demographic factors. One factor is the Information Age, which allows Americans to increasingly abandon central cities while remaining connected to their jobs and the international community. More and more Americans are working for small businesses or starting their own. In Congress, the domination by Ivy-League educated representatives is waning in favor of Republicans with Heartland values: "potent political forces will be pulling power away from the federal government and toward states, localities, voluntary associations and individuals" (Barone, 1995, p. 40).
Not content with the current level of decentralization, some officials are calling for an even higher degree of home rule for states and localities. An example is the state of Ohio, whose governor proposes the elimination of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The FHWA was responsible for the construction of the nation's interstate highway system and, although that system now only requires routine maintenance, the agency still employs about the same workforce as it did during the peak construction era: "FHWA's army of engineers, auditors and attorneys exists mainly to monitor and validate the work conducted by a similar assortment of state transportation professionals and private contractors" (Voinovich, 1997, p. 2). Ohio argues that the federal government should only assume those important tasks that cannot be performed by state and local governments or the private sector.
Although Falcone and Lan's article is generally comprehensive, one drawback is that it appears to concentrate on efforts to coordinate intergovernmental relations at the local government levels. The assumption is made that the decentralization of government will bring more changes to small-scale government than to large-scale government. Communication is a two-way street. Localities can improve their communicatio...