Some towns in rural Maine are ceasing to exist as independent entities, instead putting local decisions in the hands of distant state bureaucrats. In doing so, they are giving up on a tradition of pure democracy more than a century old, in which citizens directly determine policies and budgets in annual town meetings. In the past two decades, nine towns have joined what is called the Unorganized Territory, a vast region of sparsely inhabited forests and unincorporated places, mostly in northern Maine. The area is half the state, bigger than the state of Maryland, with about 8,000 people. Those giving...
