City Politics, Canada (review)

In this broad and comprehensive new textbook, James Lightbody applies his experience with the growth and development in Canadian city-regions to describe the policies and political systems that dominate city hall today. Although much of the book focuses on the details of metropolitan governance, the author also nicely outlines the complex global and provincial context in which city-regions operate today. Furthermore, Lightbody discusses both the role that historical and present circumstances have in today's policies. The books strongest contribution, in my view, is its discussion of the intergovernmental issues of metropolitan management, a topic currently of greatest importance to Canada's largest cities. Instructors wishing to cover these issues in depth may find the book particularly well suited for their course.

The book has fourteen chapters grouped into four parts — I. An Introduction to Canadian Metropolitan Politics; II. The Politics of City Governing; III. Intergovernmental Issues and Metropolitan Governing; IV. Canadian Metropolitan Centers in a World Context. Two big thematic political questions about the accountability of city politics guide much of the book's substantive direction. The first is how to honestly consider the varied interests represented in multicultural urban areas, yet retain the ability to provide effective and decisive city management. The second big political question is how the processes within the city-regional governing structures should be designed to encourage transparent accountability from local officials. Lightbody draws on his extensive experience both as a participant and a scholar to highlight what must be done to ensure democratic city government, suggesting remedies ranging from specific rules for intergovernmental relations to priming local communities for greater levels of participation. Throughout this broad ranging discussion, the author tries to engage readers to recognize how important city politics are to the lives of Canadians. The book should help motivated readers to see this importance, but does not spend much time trying to understand why so many citizens are not making that connection, or why involvement in the political process has diminished over the past generation.

Two substantive themes are given the most attention. First, the author is an ardent promoter of city-region municipal amalgamation, and spends a substantial amount of effort detailing the challenges and perceived benefits of regionalization. Second, the author argues for the role of political parties and party politics for ensuring more effective policy outcomes for city-regions. The author comes full circle to link his discussion of these positions to the larger political issues — democracy, participation, and innovation.

Part I frames the larger questions and themes that are elaborated on in the rest of the book. First, the author surveys the political geography of Canada and examines both successful and unsuccessful historical reform efforts to make city politics more representative. Second, the policy making apparatus is presented in detail, with a focus on how the various groups and individuals interrelate with one another and the public in the policy making process. I found Chapter 2's detailed typology of municipal institutions useful for understanding how policy is made.

Part II devotes a chapter to describing each of the following important components of politics and city governing — urban elections, political parities, interest groups and lobbying, and the impact of urban culture and social movements. Sociologists may be most drawn to the discussion of the structural influences on voting in Chapter 5 and the discussion of neighbourhood processes in Chapter 7. However, the short coverage of social movements in Chapter 8 may disappoint scholars interested in this area of work. I found the discussion about role of the media in city politics as also lacking sufficient attention. For example, the media as a core aspect of the public management strategies has recently been used effectively to guide public opinion about the redevelopment of Regent Park in Toronto.

Part III focuses on the trends and debates about local intergovernmental...