Given in this publication are two studies on political development. The first study focused on the progress toward local self-government and decision-making on Canadian reserves as compared to the neighboring resource frontier communities. The second study examined the role of the company administrator in the development, especially the political development, of Canadian single-enterprise communities and the problems which have arisen in the administration of townsites by company administrators and the effectiveness of attempted solutions. Both studies were conducted in the framework of progress toward a high quality of local public services distributed on the basis of decisions made through local self-government. Each study expands the concept of local political development and extends the circle of knowledge about how local government operates on the resource frontier. (NQ)