WHO GOVERNS? The Dilemmas of Urban Government (Lessons from the U.S.A.) PROF. RICHARD WALKER DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY GLOBAL METROPOLITAN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

When City Government Works – Or Not… US experience – Relatively successful (but for what? And whom?) – Some common/comparative lessons No perfect solutions – Despite Dahl, de Tocqueville, etc. – Need to bring in everything – engineering, economics and politics

Three Big Questions I. Function – What should local governments do? Prior to question of ‘governance’ II. Operation – Finance & administration – ‘Governance’ or government? III. Politics – Who governs? – Beyond neutrality of governance

I. Functions of Urban Government What are basic functions in US? – Land & infrastructure + social services – Seems well defined – but is it? Turbulent history Advance & fallback – not linear ‘modernity’ – America as the ‘land of land markets’ – Technology, demand & politics Scale & Federalism – ‘Fed fights’ – Fed vs states, states vs cities – metros vs suburbs, special districts vs municipalities Missing link – Still don’t control private capital

II. Operational Capacity Can local/city governments carry out their functions? Finance (Revenues) – Key to success, yet often lacking (e.g., India vs. China) – US breakthrough in taxes & bonds – Neoliberal fallback Capacity (Expertise) – Civil service & professionalism – Bureaucracy (rule of experts) vs. democracy Incentives (for officials) – Not just monetary; also professional, social & political

III. Politics & Power Beyond neutral questions of ‘governance’ Scale & Democracy – Federalism – what level is most democratic? – Democracy as inequality (the fragmented city) Popular Control – Complexity, fragmentation & invisibility – Gains in capacity & losses of democracy Money Talks: Capital & the Local State – Basic contradiction of liberalism from Locke to Dahl – The many faces of capitalist power – PPP, or Persistently Privatized Public sector