A local government is a political subdivision of the state, established by law, and may or may not have substantial or significant control over local affairs. “Under the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, all powers not granted to the federal government are reserved to the States and the people. All state governments are modeled after the federal government and consist of three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. The U.S. Constitution requires all states to maintain a “republican form of government, although the three-branch structure is not required” (State and Local Government 2014). Therefore, local governments exercise certain fundamental powers like police power and the power to implement social services in order to best serve the interests and promote the general welfare of their respective residents. For local government autonomy to work, the national and/or federal government confers the power to delegate powers to the state which then transfers these basic powers to local governments to enable the inclusion of its constituents in governmental affairs and local in what we call decentralization. Often, state government divides powers among local governments, which generally include two divisions: municipalities and counties. Counties are generally the largest and broadest geographic area yet include many local governments; the power of a county is very minimal compared to that of municipal government. Generally in North Carolina, local governments do not have the power or authority to do anything unless it is explicitly granted or enumerated in the state constitution. Although cities have a wide range of delegated powers and counties have the least, the state government would still exercise...... middle of paper ....... This notion is rather consistent with the already established idea that all functions of local government are and should be carried out by either a municipal or a county government. Without city-initiated annexation procedures and annexation powers, most city services desired and required by citizens would have to be provided by Guilford County. Finally, as the level of local government in North Carolina, almost all governmental responsibilities have been assigned to municipalities and county governments, which are two types of general purpose governmental units. In North Carolina, local government unit spending occurs across cities and counties, whereas in many other states, special districts are much larger. As a result, North Carolina's urban areas are unlikely to overlap elsewhere..