Are Cities Creatures of the State? Home Rule, State Preemption, and the Contest over Local Governance

In the nineteenth century, cities were described as “creatures of the state,” until a fervent home rule movement arose among urban reformers. This History Note traces the evolving politics of preemption, or the power of higher governments to override local decisions, in the U.S. Since then, preemption has served both progressive and conservative ends, playing out in the realm of civil rights, corporate influence, and, most recently, renewable energy and labor protections. Revisiting early home rule debates contextualizes a recent wave of state preemption challenges in the longer contest between state and local power.