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Chapter 8: Directions and Dynamics of Change, and the Prospects for Metropolitan Governance in the Americas
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Chapter 8 Directions and Dynamics of Change, and the Prospects for Metropolitan Governance in the Americas p e t e r m . w a r d , r o b e r t h . w i l s o n , a n d p e t e r k . s p i n k Our study has investigated metropolitan governance in federalist countries in the Americas. To put it simply, we find that while the policy issues of metropolitan areas are a common concern in all the six countries and engage considerable academic, technical, and political discussion, the overarching challenge to construct effective governance mechanisms for collective action is far from being resolved. The evidence from our case studies suggests that, in general, creating a new architecture of metropolitan government and governance to address these issues is, unfortunately, not a high priority either for those with the reach to bring it about or for those who may be able to bring the necessary pressure to bear. The central question of this study has been to determine whether current and emerging initiatives and structures of governance can meet the challenges of collective life in large and complex metropolitan areas. In the absence of any significant attempts to create an overarching architecture of metropolitan governance and structure, we do observe some important midlevel metropolitan practice across, and within, the six federalist countries analyzed in the preceding chapters. In most cases we 247 248 peter m. ward, robert h. wilson, and peter k. spink would characterize these practices as disjointed, fragmented, and largely unconnected experiments. Nevertheless, we did find variation in the frequency of initiatives across the countries and by policy area (discussed further below) and even regional variation of metropolitan initiatives within a single country. We also found that many of the factors outlined a priori in chapter 1—constitutional and governmental structures; jurisdictional geographies; technical and organizational characteristics of service delivery systems; political systems and the practice of politics; and demographic and civic pressures—appear to help explain the types of variation observed across our case studies. When the powers of local government are weak in terms of constitutionally defined authority, administrative capacity, or political legitimacy, then metropolitan collaboration is not likely to emerge. But the exercise of constitutionally defined powers of state or provincial governments in some countries was found to have a quite positive effect on the emergence of metropolitan forms—a point to which we return below. In contrast, subnational political systems tend to retard the emergence of metropolitan initiatives in all countries. Progress toward reform and the forging of new and more effective structures of metropolitan governance is hindered for many reasons. We find lack of interest on the part of politicians and political parties; power plays and personal agendas of national leaders; low incentives for technical staff whose careers are often linked to existing state, county, or municipal jurisdictions; inadequate financing and fiscal structures that would provide for greater redistribution of resources across the metropolitan space; and the important fact that most people appear to prefer their governments to be smaller, not larger. To the extent that the latter is true, the principal challenge is one of successfully scaling up or down people’s identification with and participation in both the local and the metropoli tan levels. Here we return to the specific research questions that we identified in chapter 1, namely: (1) What are the key characteristics of the institutional and organizational forms and the policy issues addressed by these metropolitan initiatives? (2) What factors shape the emergence and dynamics of these metropolitan-based systems? and (3) Are these initiatives offering genuine opportunities for democratic governance, creating and ensuring the necessary incentives for citizens to participate, and thereby acquiring political legitimacy? Later in this concluding chapter we will evaluate these findings to identify other important—but largely unanswered—questions and to develop a research agenda for future work. But we also wish to speak to policy communities and to share ex- pectations developed by this project on how the practice of metropolitan governance might evolve. As we have consistently pointed out, the importance of metropolitan governance for national development is considerable , as is the moral requirement to urgently improve and sustain the quality of life of many metropolitan citizens. We incorporate the lessons learned from our studies to define a set of possible pathways for the emergence of metropolitan initiatives. If our study were to be allowed only one conclusion, it would be that of the...