Throughout American History political scientist have studied the effects of government on the governed. More precisely, urban reformers of the late 1800's have specifically shown their interest in administration and policy implementation at the local level of government. While examining the governing processes of these localities, reformers kept in mind the necessity of maintaining a democratic rule. Therefore, the primary focus of these reformers was keeping politics separate from administration. This paper will examine the arguments in favor of local sovereignty as well as those opposed from the past century into modern times focusing in on the policy-administration dichotomy. .
When examining the arguments in defense of local sovereignty and those opposed it is important to also take a look at some of the empirical data in support the arguments. Early municipal reformers concentrated on removing politics from administration through limiting the power of political parties and even their elected officials while in the years to come there will be several changes made to municipalities, administration of the municipalities, and policy implementation with-in the municipalities. .
Amongst the reformers and political scientist who studied and examined policy implementation and municipal administration as well as many other areas of government was James Madison. The aim of reformers of this time period was to separate politics from administration, but with the rise of strong political parties and human social nature to form into factions or parties, it may just be inevitable that politics are a major player in a democratic system from the local level up and through the national level. Madison writes in The Federalist 10 Papers, "The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society.