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Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Introduction to The Transaction Edition -- Acknowledgments -- 1. The City in Crisis -- 2. Order and Change in Metropolitan Society -- 3. The Citizen in the Urban Worlds -- 4. The Community of Limited Liability -- 5. The Urban Polity -- 6. The Problems of the Metropolis -- 7. The Changing Image of the City -- Notes -- Index

The author argues that the design of decentralized political institutions shapes the effect of economic crisis on the welfare state. He proposes a simple framework for understanding the effects of crisis on areas under the responsibility of regional governments: their responses and mediating effects will vary with the financial system, degree of regional input into central decisions, and legal framework. Further, the ways in which territorial political institutions channel economic pressures should lead to changing territorial politics as the relative resources and credibility of governments change. The author discusses the influence of territorial political institutions on responses to economic crisis in Germany, Spain, and the UK. It is concluded that Germany is most likely to proceed unchanged, Spain might see the hardest landing due to the difficult finances of many regional governments, and devolution in the UK is economically sustainable and limits negative welfare-state effects but might be politically unsustainable. The conclusion suggests that welfare-state analysis should take more account of specific territorial political institutions, that further analysis should include local government, and that economic pressure might reshape territorial politics in at least some countries.

The functions of cities in societies are discussed in this essay, the specialized functions performed and the integration of functions. The cities are seen as marketplaces of ideas, attitudes, artifacts, and consequently, innovation; they are driving wheels of great cultures. Then the modem city is considered—as it emerges as a vast collection of "small towns" around a small urban center deserted by night with various islands of intense cultural activity. The question is raised: What will be the consequence of the loss of the city as it has developed during the 200 years of modern civilization in the West? Some speculations suggest an isolation of functions and elites, a growing social distance among them, and a situation conducive to fragmentation of culture.