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Throughout the world more policy making and the politics that shape it take place in the urban regions where most people live. This book draws on eleven case studies of similar but disparate urban regions in France, Germany and the United States from the 1960s to the 1990s. It documents the growth of this urban governance and develops a pioneering analysis of its causes and consequences. It traces the origins to the expansion and devolution of policy making, to local business mobilization and institutional interests in high-tech and service activities, and the incorporation of local social movements. Nation-states shape the possibilities for this urban governance, but operate increasingly as infrastructures for local initiatives. Where urban governance has succeeded in combining environmental quality and social inclusion with local prosperity, local officials have built on supportive infrastructures from higher levels, the local economy, civil society, and favourable positions in the global economy

Long a staple in the toolkit of American politics, comparison among subnational territorial units has gained increasing currency in comparative politics. A growing portion of subnational research, especially in the monographic literature, employs comparisons of subnational territorial units within different countries. This approach to comparison, which I term transnational comparison, has the potential to build on and extend the advantages of subnational comparison. Despite the numerous added challenges it poses, transnational comparison offers a variety of ways to incorporate and leverage variations between countries as well as within them. Drawing on exemplary studies from the literature on subnational regimes and beyond, I outline a typology of successful transnational comparative strategies. The choice among these strategies depends on their distinctive properties, on the substantive questions asked, and on the stage of a research program. All have contributed to advancing the study of politics beyond nation-centered comparison.

Institutions and their historical dynamics are indispensable to understanding how the contemporary urban politics of developing world democracies differs from the present day urban politics of the developed world. The paper sketches the outline of a comparative historical account of how the local government institutions that have become familiar among the cities of developed democracies have emerged. Then, it shows how examination of institutional arrangements in the cities of contemporary developing democracies from the same broadly comparative perspective illuminates important differences between urban politics there from contemporary processes in the cities of developed countries. These reflections point to the need to bring a deeper historical understanding to comparisons of urban governance and politics across the divide between developed country democracies and the new democracies of the developing world. Across the developed and developing worlds, the variations in institutions and state-society relations are as important as any global commonalities. In developing and transitional democracies, efforts at local state building confront conflicts that their counterparts in earlier democratizing countries did not. These conflicts stem partly from trajectories of institutional development that have left local government capacities weak, but also from the demands of urban movements that have helped bring about democratization, and arisen in its wake. The accumulating agendas of the policy state at the local level have imposed greater expectations for local governance that have in turn helped spark civic and political action, including protest. The resulting tensions have helped make local governance infrastructures as central to the politics of contemporary developing countries as they have long been to their counterparts in the developed world. ; Institucije i njihova povijesna dinamika neophodne su za razumijevanje načina na koji se gradske javne politike zemalja u razvoju razlikuju od današnjih takvih politika razvijenog svijeta. U radu se ukratko prikazuje komparativni povijesni razvoj načina na koji su se pojavile institucije lokalne vlasti koje su sada tipične za gradove razvijenih demokracija. Zatim se navodi kako, koristeći istu komparativnu perspektivu, pregled institucionalne organizacije u gradovima suvremenih zemalja u razvoju upućuje na važne razlike između tamošnjih gradskih javnih politika i suvremenih procesa u gradovima razvijenih zemalja. Ova razmatranja upućuju na potrebu dubljeg povijesnog razumijevanja usporedbi urbane vladavine i javnih politika tako da se premosti jaz između razvijenih zemalja i novih demokracija u zemljama u razvoju. U obje skupine zemalja razlike u institucijama i odnosima između društva i države jednako su važne kao i bilo koja druga globalna zajednička značajka. U zemljama u razvoju te u zemljama u tranziciji pokušaji izgradnje lokalne samouprave suočeni su s konfliktima s kojima se njihove prethodnice koje su se ranije demokratizirale nisu susretale. Spomenuti konflikti djelomično potječu od putova institucionalnog razvoja koji su zadržali slabe lokalne kapacitete ali i od zahtjeva urbanih pokreta koji su pomogli demokratizaciji, a koji su nastali tijekom toga razvoja. Rastući broj pitanja na dnevnom redu lokalnih vlasti nametnuo je veća očekivanja od lokalne vladavine što je pak potaklo građanski i politički aktivizam, uključujući i proteste. Rastuće napetosti dovele su do toga da su infrastrukture lokalne vladavine u zemljama u razvoju postale jednako važne kao što su već dugo u razvijenim zemljama.

As the world becomes more urbanized and the significance of governance and politics within cities and regions grows, comparative urban analysis has an increasingly prominent role to play in the comparative study of politics and policy. Realizing this potential requires a conceptualization of national institutions, societies, and cultures that does justice to both the persistence of the national and the influence of local and regional agents and structures. At the same time that comparative urban political analysis must separate out local agency from national institutions, it must also take account of the role that national elements play in local agency. The de-centered analysis that results departs from traditional nation-centered comparisons as well as from those centered solely on urban actors and institutions. With the growth of transnational influences, this type of analysis offers an increasingly appropriate way to scrutinize the politics of both countries and urban regions.