Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
could rival existing organizations, such as provinces or states that had the sovereign
right under most federal legislation to administer municipalities, or in fear of a
political backlash in future elections from parochial interests. Moreover, the people
in many countries of the world have attitudes that do not favour the development
of powerful regional governments below the state level in federal entities. This can
be seen in the United States especially, where instead of the administrative areas of
big cities expanding outwards to cover the built-up area, their expansion has been
restricted, allowing small separate suburban government units to emerge in their
hinterlands, a product of the strong emphasis upon local autonomy and the distrust
of big government initiatives.
These jurisdictional and ideological problems of governance, combined with the
rapidly changing globalizing world, have created difficulties for those seeking new
forms of governance to solve the emerging problems within the larger and frag-
mented metropolitan regions. So relatively few adopted the older annexation route
used in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, whereby the largest city
incorporated surrounding areas to create one large all-purpose government based
on the continuous urban sprawl. Instead, various types of regional governance have
developed in some of these metropolitan regions, but with very different character-
istics to the older top-down, single government structure. One reviewer of this type
of New Regionalism observed that the city-regional governances that have emerged
were mainly local and ad hoc arrangements, often based on co-operation between
entities within regions. Hence they were described as:
centred on partnership, flexible and hybrid forms of governance… and were… persuasive
by appearing to support the development of social capital, the notions of trust, participation
in civic associations and a sense of community (Scott
2005
, p. 453).
This description does indicate the complexity of these new city-regional governanc-
es, but the statement downplays the fact that there were also active interventions by
national or state authorities to create or legalize these metropolitan entities.
The complexity of the different forms of city-regional governance that have
emerged make it difficult to succinctly summarize their characteristics. However,
the variations between and within four main dimensions of city-regional gover-
nance shown in Table
2.5
provide an introduction to their basic differences, al-
though more detail could be provided by adding other dimensions, such as how
Table 2.5
City-regional governance: major dimensions and types
1. Functions of
Regional Unit (s)
2. Source of
Functions
3. Control Exercised
Over Functions
4. Democratic Legiti-
macy (Council and
Committees)
Complete
New
Mandatory by
regional agency
Directly elected
Partial functions
(Lower tier units pro-
vide other functions)
Down from State
Advisory (Needs local
tier unit approval)
Representatives from
other councils (or
agencies)
Single agencies
Up from local units
Delivery of services
Appointed members
