Metropolitan Government and Governance
Metropolitan Government and Governance

Author: G. Ross Stephens

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 9780195112979

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Written by two prominent political scientists working in the field of local government theory and practice, Metropolitan Government and Governance offers a comprehensive understanding of the nature of local and metropolitan government and its relationship to the larger intergovernmentalsystem. It examines a wide range of common governmental practices and issues relating to local government in metropolitan areas as well as local government generally in the United States. Stephens and Wikstrom define and present several theoretical and applied perspectives including theconsolidationist one-government approach; federative efforts to create two-tier regional governments; the public choice approach which justifies the fragmented governmental structures that exist in most metropolitan areas; incremental change in relationships and roles; and regionalism which promotesregional political cultures. Each of these approaches is illustrated with concrete examples including seven case studies of major structural reforms that highlight strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to this issue. The book also analyzes citizen support and opposition to various typesof reform in both central cities and suburban areas. More generally, it discusses the range of options available to urban governments faced with growing problems of decreased federal funding and increasing demands regarding quality-of-life issues. Based on past findings and experience, Stephens andWikstrom propose a new model for the future governance of America's urban areas. They conclude with the argument that states must assume a more assertive role with regard to the structure of local governmental and service delivery in the nations 300 plus metropolitan regions. Metropolitan Governmentand Governance is a comprehensive analytical inquiry that is not only highly appropriate for students of political science and public administration, but will also be of value to scholars and policymakers as well.

The New Localism
The New Localism

Author: Bruce Katz

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Published: 2018-01-09

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 0815731655

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The New Localism provides a roadmap for change that starts in the communities where most people live and work. In their new book, The New Localism, urban experts Bruce Katz and Jeremy Nowak reveal where the real power to create change lies and how it can be used to address our most serious social, economic, and environmental challenges. Power is shifting in the world: downward from national governments and states to cities and metropolitan communities; horizontally from the public sector to networks of public, private and civic actors; and globally along circuits of capital, trade, and innovation. This new locus of power—this new localism—is emerging by necessity to solve the grand challenges characteristic of modern societies: economic competitiveness, social inclusion and opportunity; a renewed public life; the challenge of diversity; and the imperative of environmental sustainability. Where rising populism on the right and the left exploits the grievances of those left behind in the global economy, new localism has developed as a mechanism to address them head on. New localism is not a replacement for the vital roles federal governments play; it is the ideal complement to an effective federal government, and, currently, an urgently needed remedy for national dysfunction. In The New Localism, Katz and Nowak tell the stories of the cities that are on the vanguard of problem solving. Pittsburgh is catalyzing inclusive growth by inventing and deploying new industries and technologies. Indianapolis is governing its city and metropolis through a network of public, private and civic leaders. Copenhagen is using publicly owned assets like their waterfront to spur large scale redevelopment and finance infrastructure from land sales. Out of these stories emerge new norms of growth, governance, and finance and a path toward a more prosperous, sustainable, and inclusive society. Katz and Nowak imagine a world in which urban institutions finance the future through smart investments in innovation, infrastructure and children and urban intermediaries take solutions created in one city and adapt and tailor them to other cities with speed and precision. As Katz and Nowak show us in The New Localism, “Power now belongs to the problem solvers.”

Smart Cities in Europe and Asia
Smart Cities in Europe and Asia

Author: Prana Krishna Biswas

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-07-24

Total Pages: 169

ISBN-13: 1000909069

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The smart city concept, together with the growing importance of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, has a significant impact on city management and governance. This book examines real cases of smart city management across Asia and Europe. It covers regions such as Iceland, Estonia, Poland, Germany, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam to systemize the knowledge in the field. It evaluates smart cities’ efficiency and analyzes and assesses the standards, norms and best practices involved in the management of smart cities. The book answers questions such as what it is that makes smart cities stand out, why some countries in Europe and Asia have more smart cities than others, whether smart cities support the economy and GDP growth of the country, and what the main determinants of forming smart cities in Asia and Europe are. It also evaluates whether smart cities secure higher standards of living for their citizens as compared to regular cities. Many theoretical concepts and theories are developed and then verified from the perspective of Western economies. Central Eastern European and Asian countries are frequently overlooked, thus, examining the smart city idea from the viewpoint of non-Western economies offers a fresh insight into the concept and its adaptation and evolution. The range of issues analyzed in the book are multilayered and approached from a wide array of perspectives, from macroeconomics to management, finance and technology, and public policy. Thus, the book is addressed to researchers, students, and academics who specialize in sustainable and regional development, economic geography, and management. It will also be of interest to urban planners, environmental scientists, and policymakers.

Reforming the City
Reforming the City

Author: Ariane Liazos

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2019-12-17

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 0231549377

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Most American cities are now administered by appointed city managers and governed by councils chosen in nonpartisan, at-large elections. In the early twentieth century, many urban reformers claimed these structures would make city government more responsive to the popular will. But on the whole, the effects of these reforms have been to make citizens less likely to vote in local elections and local governments less representative of their constituents. How and why did this happen? Ariane Liazos examines the urban reform movement that swept through the country in the early twentieth century and its unintended consequences. Reformers hoped to make cities simultaneously more efficient and more democratic, broadening the scope of what local government should do for residents while also reconsidering how citizens should participate in their governance. However, they increasingly focused on efficiency, appealing to business groups and compromising to avoid controversial and divisive topics, including the voting rights of African Americans and women. Liazos weaves together wide-ranging nationwide analysis with in-depth case studies. She offers nuanced accounts of reform in five cities; details the activities of the National Municipal League, made up of prominent national reformers and political scientists; and analyzes quantitative data on changes in the structures of government in over three hundred cities. Reforming the City is an important study for American history and political development, with powerful insights into the relationships between scholarship and reform and between the structures of city government and urban democracy.

Governing States and Localities
Governing States and Localities

Author: Kevin B. Smith

Publisher: CQ Press

Published: 2019-01-03

Total Pages: 782

ISBN-13: 1544361149

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"An easy-to-navigate, comparative book on state and local government. Very student-friendly and well-organized." —Jane Bryant, John A. Logan College The trusted and proven Governing States and Localities guides students through the contentious environment of state and local politics and focuses on the role that economic and budget pressures play in issues facing state and local governments. With their engaging journalistic writing and crisp storytelling, Kevin B. Smith and Alan Greenblatt employ a comparative approach to explain how and why states and localities are both similar and different. The Seventh Edition is thoroughly updated to account for such major developments as state versus federal conflicts over immigration reform, school shootings, and gun control; the impact of the Donald Trump presidency on intergovernmental relations and issues of central interest to states and localities; and the lingering effects of the Great Recession. A Complete Teaching and Learning Package SAGE coursepacks FREE! Easily import our quality instructor and student resource content into your school’s learning management system (LMS) and save time. Learn more. SAGE edge FREE online resources for students that make learning easier. See how your students benefit.

Australia's Metropolitan Imperative
Australia's Metropolitan Imperative

Author: Richard Tomlinson

Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING

Published: 2018-07-01

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 1486307981

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Since the early 1990s there has been a global trend towards governmental devolution. However, in Australia, alongside deregulation, public–private partnerships and privatisation, there has been increasing centralisation rather than decentralisation of urban governance. Australian state governments are responsible for the planning, management and much of the funding of the cities, but the Commonwealth government has on occasion asserted much the same role. Disjointed policy and funding priorities between levels of government have compromised metropolitan economies, fairness and the environment. Australia’s Metropolitan Imperative: An Agenda for Governance Reform makes the case that metropolitan governments would promote the economic competitiveness of Australia’s cities and enable more effective and democratic planning and management. The contributors explore the global metropolitan ‘renaissance’, document the history of metropolitan debate in Australia and demonstrate metropolitan governance failures. They then discuss the merits of establishing metropolitan governments, including economic, fiscal, transport, land use, housing and environmental benefits. The book will be a useful resource for those engaged in strategic, transport and land use planning, and a core reference for students and academics of urban governance and government.

The Stake of Rural People in Metropolitan Government
The Stake of Rural People in Metropolitan Government

Author: Clarence Jacob Hein

Publisher:

Published: 1961

Total Pages: 28

ISBN-13:

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Preliminary results of the 1960 census indicate that a third of the population of the United States now lives in the suburbs, or more precisely, in metropolitan areas but outside central cities. The population increase in these newly built-up areas has increased the demand for government facilities and services, and for funds with which to finance them.

Survival Strategies
Survival Strategies

Author: George G. Wynne

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-12-16

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 1000679403

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First published 1979, this is a most unusual contribution to comparative urban systems. It examines Paris and New York in terms of future prospects for each city in the face of draconian social, economic, and political changes, and takes as axiomatic that the struggles of New York and Paris are those of super cities: namely struggles to survive as world centers and not just as national metropolitan areas of worth. The volume covers such vital areas as planning for older cities like Paris and New York, problems in the internal management system of each city, the relationship between inner cities and suburbs, and issues involved in regional planning in which the two world cities provide models for their nations and the world as a whole.The work is unusual in that it not only appraises organizational issues, but sociological and architectural ones as well. Hence, the issue of blacks in New York, or Arabs in Paris, is addressed with considerable candor and insight. The relationship between substandard housing in each of the cities is examined with the clear understanding of the racial dynamics at work in each of these centers.This work gives intellectual and practical substance to Gottman's notion of megalopolis, and places in sharp comparative relief problems which all too often are seen as local and parochial in character. This volume represents the first world-cities approach to real world cities, and as such, is a pioneering effort that will be greeted with great enthusiasm by scholarly and general readers alike. The authors gathered for this effort represent leading practitioners from both France and the United States, and hence the volume is a joy to read no less than to ponder.