From 1666 to 1960, Connecticut had a system of county governments, which each had limited powers given to it by the General Assembly.
Connecticut's court jurisdictions still adhere to the old county boundaries, with the exception of Fairfield, Hartford, and New Haven counties, which have been further subdivided into multiple court jurisdictions due to their relatively large populations.
In practice, as is the case in most of New England, their authority has been very broadly construed, and there is a long-standing tradition of local autonomy.
Under Connecticut's Home Rule Act, any town is permitted to adopt its own local charter and choose its own structure of government.
All cities in Connecticut are dependent municipalities, meaning they are located within and subordinate to a town.
Connecticut state law also makes no distinction between a consolidated town-city and a regular town.
All cities are treated by the Census Bureau as incorporated places regardless of the settlement pattern.
Boroughs are usually the populated center of a town that decided to incorporate in order to have more responsive local government.
Connecticut also has a fair number of non-incorporated communities that are known locally as villages (usually in more rural areas), neighborhoods or "sections of" a city or town.
"Villages" in this local Connecticut sense have no separate legal/corporate existence from the town they are in, although a taxing district or volunteer fire department sharing the name of the village may exist for specific services.
Some examples of villages, neighborhoods, and sections that have given their names to post offices or CDPs are Falls Village, Mystic, Niantic, Quaker Hill, South Kent, Stafford Springs, and Whitneyville.
They are created to provide flexibility of administration, avoiding many of the regulations that public agencies are subject to.
[9][10] Examples include the Capital Region Development Authority, which provides loans and grants to support private development in and around Hartford, CT or the Connecticut Lottery Corporation, which oversees lottery gaming in the state.