Power and City Governance: Comparative Perspectives on Urban Development

This book develops a new way of comparing and understanding urban politics across national borders. The author's approach, called "modes of governance, " emphasizes governing alignments and their agendas. Applying this perspective to four cities in England and the United States, Alan DiGaetano and John S. Klemanski compare the effects of postindustrial and urban political transformations, and link these to trends in the wider political economy.Economics, demographics, and state structure influence the choices that ruling alliances face in urban politics. Power and City Governance examines the role of these forces, then evaluates urban development in Boston and Detroit and in the English cities Birmingham and Bristol. The book compares the origins and development of pro-growth, growth-management, and social-reform governing alignments and, drawing on over 200 interviews with local leaders, provides a clear perspective on the power structure in each city.Unusual in its integration of comparative theory and practical analysis, Power and City Governance contributes significantly to the long-standing debate over the structure of community power.