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17 Pol. Sci. Q. 1 (1902)

handle is hein.journals/pclscceqry17 and id is 1 raw text is: Volume X VI[.]M POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY. THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. THE charter of the city of New York is of interest not merely to the citizens of the city and of the state of New York, but also to the people of the United States as a whole. New York has in the past led the way in munici- pal development in the United States. It was the first city of any importance to receive a charter of incorporation in the colonial period of our country. As early as 1830 the choice of mayor, who had hitherto been appointed by the governor or the common council, was vested in the voters of the city; though in this case New York was not the first in the field, as the principle of popular election had already been adopted in several other cities, e.g., Boston, St. Louis and Detroit. The New York charter of 183o also first applied to city government certain principles of political science which were supposed to be susceptible of general application in governmental organiza- tion. It separated the council into two branches, thus intro- ducing the bicameral principle in municipal government, and it provided for executive departments distinct from the council. In 1849 New York again applied a principle which has since that time been almost universally applied in the municipal governments of the United States. This was the detailed organization of the executive departments in the charter itself. In 1857 the legislature of the state of New York adopted, for the first time in the later history of municipal development in the United States, the principle of the appointment of important March, 19o2. [ Number i. I