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WHO GOVERNS? The Dilemmas of Urban Government (Lessons from the U.S.A.)

Explore the challenges and successes of urban government in the United States, examining the functions, operation, and politics of local governments. Discover the complexities of finance, operational capacity, and the power dynamics between governance and private capital.

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WHO GOVERNS? The Dilemmas of Urban Government (Lessons from the U.S.A.)

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  1. WHO GOVERNS?The Dilemmas of Urban Government(Lessons from the U.S.A.) PROF. RICHARD WALKER DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY GLOBAL METROPOLITAN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

  2. When City Government Works –Or Not… • US experience • Relatively successful (but for what? And whom?) • Some common/comparative lessons • No perfect solutions • Despite Dahl, de Tocqueville, etc. • Need to bring in everything – • engineering, economics and politics

  3. Three Big Questions • Function • What should local governments do? • Prior to question of ‘governance’ • Operation • Finance & administration • ‘Governance’ or government? • Politics • Who governs? • Beyond neutrality of governance

  4. I. Functions of Urban Government • What are basic functions in US? • Land & infrastructure + social services • Seems well defined – but is it? Turbulent history • Advance & fallback – not linear ‘modernity’ • America as the ‘land of land markets’ • Technology, demand & politics • Scale & Federalism – ‘Fed fights’ • Fed vs states, states vs cities • metros vs suburbs, special districts vs municipalities • Missing link • Still don’t control private capital

  5. II. Operational Capacity Can local/city governments carry out their functions? • Finance (Revenues) • Key to success, yet often lacking (e.g., India vs. China) • US breakthrough in taxes & bonds • Neoliberal fallback • Capacity (Expertise) • Civil service & professionalism • Bureaucracy (rule of experts) vs. democracy • Incentives (for officials) • Not just monetary; also professional, social & political

  6. III. Politics & Power Beyond neutral questions of ‘governance’ • Scale & Democracy • Federalism – what level is most democratic? • Democracy as inequality (the fragmented city) • Popular Control • Complexity, fragmentation & invisibility • Gains in capacity & losses of democracy • Money Talks: Capital & the Local State • Basic contradiction of liberalism from Locke to Dahl • The many faces of capitalist power • PPP, or Persistently Privatized Public sector

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