Governing From Below: Urban Regions And The Global Economy (cambridge Studies In Comparative Politics)

Throughout the world more policy making and the politics that shape it take place in the urban regions where most people live. This book draws on eleven case studies of similar but disparate urban regions in France, Germany and the United States from the 1960s to the 1990s. It documents the growth of this urban governance and develops a pioneering analysis of its causes and consequences. It traces the origins to the expansion and devolution of policy making, to local business mobilization and institutional interests in high-tech and service activities, and the incorporation of local social movements. Nation-states shape the possibilities for this urban governance, but operate increasingly as infrastructures for local initiatives. Where urban governance has succeeded in combining environmental quality and social inclusion with local prosperity, local officials have built on supportive infrastructures from higher levels, the local economy, civil society, and favourable positions in the global economy. "Throughout the world, more and more of policy making and the politics that shape it take place in the urban regions where most people live. This book, drawing on eleven case studies of similar but disparate urban regions in France, Germany and the United States from the 1960s into the 1990s, documents the growth of urban governance and develops a pioneering analysis of its causes and consequences. This analysis traces the origins of urban governance to the expansion as well as the devolution of policy making, to mobilization around local business and institutional interests in high-tech and service activities and to the growth and incorporation of local social movements. Although nation-states shape the possibilities for this urban governance, they operate increasingly as infrastructures for local initiatives rather than through dictates from above. Where urban governance has succeeded best in combining environmental quality and social inclusion with local prosperity, local officials have built not only on supportive infrastructures from higher levels but on regimes in the local economy and civil society and on favorable positions in the global economy."--Jacket Cities play a growing role in governing. This new role fits within a context that nation-states, global market forces and cities themselves continue to define. The analysis of this book focuses on how local efforts in the distinct European systems of France and Germany as well as American counterparts have provided for environmental quality and social inclusion alongside local economic development. Only in certain European settings has policy making at multiple levels accomplished all three objectives at once. In those settings, effective governance from below has relied on adequate support from higher levels of governments and a favorable position in the global economy. Across the advanced industrial world and beyond, a far-reaching transformation is under way. Jefferey M. Sellers. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.