This new study examines the relationship between two key issues in the on-going debate on urban governance- leadership and community involvement.
This book explores the nature of the interaction between community involvement and political leadership in modern local governance. Drawing on empirical data gathered from case-studies concerning cities in England, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, and Sweden, the analysis offers both a country specific and cross-cutting analysis of the contributions that communities and leaders can make to more effective local governance. These country specific chapters are complemented by thematic, comparative chapters addressing alternative forms of community involvement, types and styles of leadership, multi-level governance, institutional restrictions and opportunities for leadership and involvement, institutional conditions underpinning leadership and involvement, and political culture in cities. This up-to-date survey of trendsand developments in local governance moves the debate forward by analyzing modern governance with reference to theories related to institutional theory, legitimation, and the way urban leadership and community involvement compliment one another.
This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of politics and urban governance, and to all those concerned with questions of local governance and democracy.

As we move further into the 21st century, the prominence of regions can no longer be taken for granted. A certain skepticism has developed with regard to the feasibility of marginal regions achieving self-sustained growth and states have maintained their role as regulators of economic and social activities. Thus, the notion of the region and its significance is currently much debated and contested. Illustrated with a wide range of European case studies, this volume brings together the main strands of these contestations, as economic, political and social actors attempt to institutionalise their vision of their region as the dominant form of territorial governance. It questions both the external delimitation and the internal constitution of regions and critically analyses the societal processes circumscribing ways in which regions are created, maintained and undermined. The volume provides a wide range of analytical perspectives to enable an understanding of the current mosaic of regionalism in Europe.

This comprehensive volume explores debt dynamics and the intensification of debt crises across the globe, bringing together several recent but underexplored debt crises from different regional and socioeconomic contexts. Using detailed case studies, the authors recast the perils of debt-based growth in the context of regional/global imbalances; not to advocate 'one-size-fits-all' reforms, but to point to the need for accommodating diversity. They examine how current economic developments put developing and developed countries under new strain. They also interrogate the opportunities and challenges generated for developing countries by the new development finance landscape and newly (re)emerged geopolitical tensions. The book also explores the inability of existing dominant structures and thinking to effectively manage the multiple facets of the ongoing global debt crisis, pointing to responses that exacerbate rather than address unsustainable debt dynamics. The authors illustrate the adverse effects of ad hoc crisis management mechanisms which are not fit for purpose, and indicate the negative consequences that existing policies may have for democracy. They then put forward a framework for alternative thinking as well as concrete ideas on what needs to be done, in response. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars and professionals in the field of global debt studies. It was originally published as a special issue of the online journal Third World Thematics.

Over the last decade, the oil and gas industry has garnered a lot of support from the United States federal and state governments in the name of energy independence and economic prosperity. More specifically, hydraulic fracturing or fracking is said to not only make the production of affordable energy possible but also reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by substituting coal with natural gas in the utility sector. Behind the facade of many socio-economic and political benefits, the process of fracking causes serious environmental concerns. Dismissing the negative externalities of fracking simply raises the question, to what extent have communities close to fracking sites been adversely impacted by it? In this book, Sarmistha R. Majumdar studies four communities close to fracking well sites in Texas to help illustrate to what extent fracking regulations have been developed in Texas and how effective these regulations have been in safeguarding the interests of individuals in local communities amidst the lure of economic gains from the extraction of oil and natural gas from shale formations. Majumdar has developed a model to show stage by stage community actions to regain their quality of life and the consequences of their actions, if any, on state and local regulations and ordinances, and the oil and gas industry. This book will be an important resource for scholars of environmental and natural resource politics and policy in the United States.

"This is a very rich monograph, based on impressive fieldwork in China, which demonstrates excellent qualitative and ethnographic research skills, research integrity, and cultural perceptiveness in the analysis. This book will make a great contribution to the literature on policy transfer and and policy mobilities, and on urban politics in contemporary China, as it offers a rich understanding of the nitty-gritty practices of transferring and learning 'from abroad'."Claire Colomb, Professor of Urban Studies and Planning at the University College London, UK. This book explores the concept of Careful Urban Renewal, a concept of urban renewal that originated in Berlin in the 1980s and that was proposed to Yangzhou, a Chinese city of the wealthy province of Jiangsu, in the early 2000s. It sets out to understand whether knowledge and ideas originating in a specific setting can be transferred to another locality thousands of miles away from the point of origin, and have the chance to change the policies and the practices of the destination city. The book shows that foreign ideas can inspire ambitious reforms of the policies of a single city, but that there also exist multiple challenges to policy learning and to the rooting of new ideas in local practices. To explore these challenges, this book develops an analysis of the micro-dynamics of policy transfer, showing that there exist multiple hierarchies to which a Chinese city can be subjected, intermittently opening or closing "windows for policy learning".

Political corruption is easy to define - the use of public office for private gain - but it isn't so readily seen because politicians cover their tracks so well. Four of America's most corrupt mayors and their shady dealings are covered in this work. ""Big Bill"" Thompson, who was mayor of Chicago three times, is considered America's worst mayor, having, among other questionable activities, accepted support from gangster Al Capone. Frank Hague of Jersey City described his town as the ""moralest city in the nation"" and banished prostitution and pornography, but he saw no evil in gambling and Jersey City became a gambling mecca. Jimmy Walker of New York City was a ""good time"" mayor and did well as the city prospered, but cared little for the city's money and his own when the Great Depression struck. James Michael Curley of Boston openly asserted that ""politics is my business,"" but he flaunted a lavish home built entirely at the public's expense and was elected again and again, once while he was still in jail.

Urban governance and sustainability are rapidly becoming key issues around the world. Currently three billion people - half the population of the planet - live in cities, and by 2050 a full two-thirds of the world's population will be housed in ever larger and increasingly densely populated urban areas. The economic, social and environmental challenges posed by urbanization on such a large scale and at such a rapid pace are staggering for local, regional and national governments working towards sustainability. Solutions to the myriad problems plaguing the quest for sustainability at the city-level are equally as diverse and complex, but are rooted in the assumptions of the 'sustainability agenda', developed at the Rio Earth Summit and embodied in Local Agenda/Action 21. These assumptions state that good governance is a necessary precondition for the achievement of sustainable development, particularly at the local level, and that the mobilization of local communities is an essential part of this process. Yet until now, these assumptions, which have guided the policies and programmes of over 6000 local authorities around the world, have never been seriously tested. Drawing on three years of field research in 40 European towns and cities, Governing for Sustainable Cities is the first book to examine empirically the processes of urban governance in sustainable development. Looking at a host of core issues including institutional and social capacity, institutional design, social equity, politics, partnerships and cooperation and creative policy-making, the authors draw compelling conclusions and offer strong guidance. This book is essential reading for policy-makers, politicians, activists and NGOs, planners, researchers and academics, whether in Europe, North America, Australasia or transitional and developing countries, concerned with advancing sustainability in our rapidly urbanizing world.

Facing cutbacks in federal and state assistance and a new wave of taxpayer revolts, local governments have renewed interest in local government consolidation as a way of achieving efficiencies of scale in response to citizen demands for services. Yet the vast majority of consolidation efforts fail, either during the process of drafting a charter or once they reach the ballot - only five have passed since 1990; only thirty-two have been successfully implemented since the first, when the city of New Orleans merged with Orleans Parish in 1805. What accounts for the high failure rate and what factors led to successful consolidations? This volume presents thirteen comparable case studies of consolidation campaigns and distills the findings.

Cuba has experienced many social, economic, and political changes since Raul Castro retained presidency of the island nation in 2008. This comprehensive volume examines how Cuba has restructured some of its core economic policies in order to tackle stagnation; these include allowing for more legalized private enterprises, reducing the number of State-employed workers, and fostering additional outside investments. The authors explore the surge of entrepreneurial activity in tourism among Cuban residents due to these reforms, whether that be offering new tourism products or expanding traditional ones. Though the current diplomatic climate suggests continued uncertainty, the ripple effect of a potentially thawing relationship between Cuba and the USA resulted in an unexpected surge of international tourists wishing to experience Cuba before it opened to the American travel market. This book highlights the factors that are influencing, and in some cases complicating, tourism planning and development in Cuba. The authors explore a wide range of topics including tourism and land-use policy, competitiveness, responsible practices, gender and ethical advertising, the role of tour guides, emergence of casa particulares, experiential learning and solidarity, and authenticity through local art. This book will interest students, researchers, politicians and investors with a focus on Cuba. It was originally published as a special issue of the journal Tourism Planning & Development.

This comprehensive volume is the first systematic effort to explore the ways in which recognised states and international organisations interact with secessionist 'de facto states', while maintaining the position that they are not regarded as independent sovereign actors in the international system. It is generally accepted by policy makers and scholars that some interaction with de facto states is vital, if only to promote a resolution of the underlying conflict that led to their decision to break away, and yet this policy of 'engagement without recognition' is not without complications and controversy. This book analyses the range of issues and problems that such interaction inevitably raises. The authors highlight fundamental questions of sovereignty, conflict management and resolution, settlement processes, foreign policy and statehood. This book will be of interest to policy makers, students and researchers of international relations. It was originally published as a special issue of the journal Ethnopolitics.

The decade commencing with the great crash of 2008 was a watershed period for Italian politics, involving fundamental and dramatic changes, many of which had not been anticipated and which are charted in this book. This comprehensive volume covers the impact of the Eurozone crisis on the Italian economy and its relationship with the European Union, the dramatic changes in the political parties (and particularly the rise of a new political force, the Five Star Movement, which became the largest political party in 2013), the changing role of the Trade Unions in the lives of Italian citizens, the Italian migration crisis, electoral reforms and their impact on the Italian party system (where trends towards bipolarisation appear to be exhausted), the rise of new forms of social protest, changes to political culture and social capital and, finally, amidst the crisis, reforms to the welfare state. Overall, the authors reveal a country, which many had assumed was in quiet transition towards a more stable democracy, that suffers an immense shock from the Eurozone crisis and bringing to the fore deep-rooted structural problems which have changed the dynamics of its politics, as confirmed in the outcome to the 2018 National Elections. This book was originally published as a special issue of South European Society and Politics.

The study of the political economy of development in India is significant as India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing countries during the last three decades and the rate of economic growth and poverty reduction have not been matched in India's subnational states. Although the Union Government has introduced and implemented several economic reforms since 1991 to enhance the economic development, the results of implantation have varied. Governance and Development in India compares two Indian subnational states, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. The book does not consider the state as an aggregate entity; rather, it disaggregates the state relationally and spatially. Concentrating on the micro-institutional variables and the role of regional elites, the author investigates the political roots of the divergence of development trajectories among India's subnational states since liberalization, as an essential aspect of the political economy of development in India. The book explores the black box of the multi-layered state of India and interactions among the Central Government, the states, regional leaders and other stakeholders and explains why the regional leaders have pursued divergent economic strategies using the analytical narrative research method and the subnational comparative research method. Firmly based on the theoretical foundations of the neo-institutional rational choice model of governance, polycentric hierarchy theory and the strategies for regional elite strategy analysis, combined with empirical research, this book is a valuable contribution to the fields of comparative political economy, state politics in India, governance and development in developing countries, and South Asian comparative politics.

Using the way of storytelling, this book examines the petitions of the migrants of a dam in China. With the intensive and thorough analysis of the unique logic behind the petitions, it explores the complex relationship between Chinese peasants and governments, where people may find the key to the mysteries of Chinese society. As the first academic monograph which systematically studies petition, the peculiar Chinese social phenomenon, this book describes the collective action of the rural migrants who had fallen into poverty due to the construction of a dam in China's Three Gorges area. By investigating the ups and downs of the petitions, it reveals the operating mechanism of Chinese counties, the conflicts between the officials and the masses, as well as Chinese political culture, especially the subtle process of the contest of powers. It observes that the peasants' pursuit of justice not only temporarily maintains the balance of interests, but also makes the legitimacy of the party-state been reproduced. With substantial first-hand materials and empirical analyses, this book will be a valuable reference for scholars and students to study Chinese politics and society.

Of all the questions that might be asked about political life, it would be difficult to find one of greater interest than the ancient query: who rules over whom? It appeals powerfully to our curiosity. We want to know who "runs" things--who makes policy decisions in New York, Washington, London, or the town in which we live. Is it a single powerful individual, an economic elite, a series of elites, the citizens, political bosses, or some variant of these possibilities? The major purpose of this volume is to find an answer to this question for a small American city, and to extend the answer through relevant theory to American cities in general. But much more precisely, answers are sought for these interrelated questions: What are the relationships between the rulers and the ruled? How are the rulers related to each other? Are the rulers the same for all policies or do they differ from one area of policy to another? How do leaders arise, and in what way are they different from other people? The issues discussed in this volume are familiar to many towns. They range from controversies about the building of a new water system to housing and zoning codes, from charity appeals to low-income housing, from nominations and elections to industrial development and off-street parking. Wildavsky draws parallels to other community studies and formulates general propositions in support of his thesis that American communities are pluralist. And ultimately, Wildavsky is optimistic that small towns foster citizen participation, giving the population more of a chance to direct its own future. Aaron Wildavsky was, until his death in 1993, professor of political science and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and, while working on the present study, taught at Oberlin College. Transaction has posthumously published Wildavsky's complete essays and papers in five volumes. Nelson W. Polsby is Heller Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught American politics and government since 1967. He is editor of the" Annual Review of Political Science" and author of "Congress and the Presidency."

If there is a "culture war" taking place in the United States, one of the most interesting, if under-the-radar, battlegrounds is in local school board elections. Rarely does the pitch of this battle reach national attention, as it did in Kansas when the state school board - led by several outspoken conservative Christians - voted to delete evolution from the state's science curriculum and its standardized tests in August 1999. That action rattled not only the educational and scientific communities, but concerned citizens around the nation as well. While the movement of the Christian Right into national and state politics has been well documented, this is the first book to examine their impact on local school board politics. While the Kansas decision was short-lived, during the past decade in school districts around the country, conservative Christian majorities have voted to place limits on sex education, to restrict library books, to remove references to gays and lesbians in the classroom, and to promote American culture as superior to other cultures. "School Board Battles" studies the motivation, strategies, and electoral success of Christian Right school board candidates. Based on interviews, and using an extensive national survey of candidates as well as case studies of two school districts in which conservative Christians ran and served on local boards, Melissa M. Deckman gives us a surprisingly complex picture of these candidates. She reveals weaker ties to national Christian Right organizations - and more similarities between these conservative candidates and their more secular counterparts than might be expected. Deckman examines important questions: Why do conservative Christians run for school boards? How much influence has the Christian Right actually had on school boards? How do conservative Christians govern? "School Board Battles" is an in-depth and in-the-trenches look at an important encounter in the "culture war" - one that may well determine the future of our nation's youth.

The theme of this collection of essays is partnerships between health and local government. Such partnerships are not new. Nor is discussion of the merits (or otherwise) of collaboration between the two sectors. The history of collaboration between these two sectors of the public services has been chequered to say the least; indeed, the boundary between health and social care has been described as a 'Berlin Wall'.
However, New Labour's ascension to power in 1997 has rekindled an avid interest in this issue. The government's emphasis on partnerships and collaboration has been projected as a key element of its 'Third Way' philosophy. Partnership working in particular has been viewed as the most appropriate means of addressing endemic, obdurate social ills, such as social exclusion, poor health, poverty, and low educational standards.

Rebecca Browning Rankin was a politician in the best sense of the word. She supervised the New York Municipal Reference Library for 32 years until her retirement in 1952. Serving in many key policy-making positions, both on mayoral committees and in professional organizations, Rankin was an excellent lobbyist for the role of information in educating the electorate. She published over fifty articles and books on aspects of city government and libraries, and delivered weekly radio speeches on WNYC from 1928 to 1938. Her career as a librarian, author and radio commentator demonstrates the use of research in the formation of public policy decisions and provides a unique perspective on politics in New York. Rankin also served as president of several library organizations including the Special Library Association, which she led to national status during her tenure. During the Depression, she established the Association's employment service and worked with Mayor Fiorello La Guardia and other library officials to provide pensions for public librarians in New York City. Rankin and La Guardia shared the belief that government should carry out the will of the people and care for their needs, and the two worked together to make this a reality. Quotations from primary sources in the archives of the New York Public Library and the City of New York give the book a strong narrative style. Focusing on Rankin's efforts to document New York City's past as its unofficial historian, the book examines the city's political history during the first half of the twentieth century and illuminates the relationship of the local government with one of its great cultural institutions, the New York Public Library.

There are many types and forms of regional government agencies. These include regional planning commissions, council of governments, regional advisory committees, regional allocation agencies, and special purpose regional agencies. Even so innovative approaches to regional government and cooperation among general-purpose local governments are relatively recent phenomena. The first section of this volume provides the reader with a comprehensive introduction and overview to the field of regional government in general, and of recent regional government innovations throughout the nation in particular. The second section provides 25 case studies that examine outstanding examples of public and nonprofit initiatives and programs that promote regional government throughout America. The final section studies current trends in regional governance, the evolving role of regional councils, and the regional challenges posed by increased global competition. A directory of regional and national resource organizations dealing with regional government as well as a comprehensive annotated bibliography are included at the end of this volume.

The subject of this book is one of the most central and timely in Public Administration - how to make sense of critical theory, and (especially) how to assess its implications for everyday practice. Charles Frederick Abel and Arthur Sementelli argue that Evolutionary Critical Theory - a synergistic employment of the methodologies of traditional social science, institutionalism, and hermeneutics - provides fresh insights into the core issues of Public Administration theory and practice. While some may argue that public administration theory is an oxymoron, this ground-breaking volume explodes that notion and argues that Evolutionary Critical Theory is an especially helpful and powerful tool for administrative scholars and practitioners in their quest to realize good government.

Selected Contents: 1. Introduction2. Theories of Institutional Dynamics3. Political and Administrative Cities4. The Evolution of Political Cities5. The Evolution of Administrative Cities6. The Evolution of the Model City Charter7. The Discovery of Adapted Cities8. Probing the Complexities of Adapted Cities9. The Conciliated City10. Conclusions

After over a decade of administrative and economic reform in mainland China, the center has become increasingly remote and less important for many localities. In many ways, the mobilization capacity of the central government has been weakened. Central government policies are often ignored and local officials are often more interested in personal projects than in centrally directed economic plans. In this study of local government and politics in China, the author explores when and why local government officials comply with policy directives from above. Drawing on interviews with government officials in various municipalities and a review of county records and other government documents, he provides the first in-depth look at policy implementation at the county and township levels in the PRC. The book examines the impact of the Chinese cadre system on the behavior of local officials, local party and government structure, relationships among various levels of Chinese local government, policy supervision mechanisms at local levels, village governance of China, and more.

A study in the project The Status and Condition of the Arabs in Israel under the direction of Professor Henry Rosenfeld. In this book the authors present a historical analysis of local authorities in Arab communities prior to and since the establishment of the state of Israel. They discuss the workings of Arab local councils, municipalities, and national political groupings as well as the circumstances of internal conflicts in Arab settlements. They also present comparative data on budgets in Jewish and Arab communities.

This book studies political leadership at the local level, based on data from a survey of the mayors of cities of more than 10,000 inhabitants in 29 European countries carried out between 2014 and 2016. The book compares these results with those of a similar survey conducted ten years ago. From this comparative perspective, the book examines how to become a mayor in Europe today, the attitudes of these politicians towards administrative and territorial reforms, their notions of democracy, their political priorities, whether or not party politicization plays a role at the municipal level, and how mayors interact with other actors in the local political arena. This study addresses students, academics and practitioners concerned at different levels with the functioning and reforms of the municipal level of local government.

Contents:
1. Understanding Inclusion in the City 2. "A Great Learning City" 3. Perspectives on Inclusion/Exclusion in Birmingham 4. Selection by Attainment 5. Embracing the Faith, Including the Community? 6. Single-sex Education and Inclusive School Communities 7. Student Choice and Participation in Further Education 8. A 'Turbulent' City: Mobility and Social Inclusion 9. Moving Towards Inclusion?

This book uses a multi-method approach to explain why recent Iowa governors have been able to stay in office significantly longer than their peers. Voters in Iowa value a personal connection with their governor and those governors who ignore that expectation are held accountable at the polls.