Metropolitan Governance in the Federalist Americas

Peter K. Spink is professor of public administration and government in the São Paulo School of Business Administration, Getulio Vargas Foundation.Peter M. Ward is the C. B. Smith Sr. Centennial Chair in U.S.-Mexico Relations in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin.Robert H. Wilson is Mike Hogg Professor of Urban Policy and associate dean and professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.

"This scholarly volume highlights the potential for good governance at an intermediate tier between the federal and the municipal levels: large metropolitan regions, which are well suited, the book's contributors assert, to address pressing collective-action problems, such as natural disasters, inefficient infrastructure, and the unequal provision of social services." —Foreign Affairs"Overall, this is an ambitious and impressive work. The authors cover a wide spectrum of government and governance issues in the countries examined, and they do so with considerable clarity, insight, and intelligence." —Publius"Coeditors Spink (Getulio Vargas Foundation, Brazil) and Ward and Wilson (both, Univ. of Texas, Austin) have made a major contribution to the advancement of knowledge in their methodical comparative analysis of metropolitan governance to include civil and political actors in the federal systems of six countries located in the Americas . . . This is a high-quality, methodical, readable book." —Choice"This collection is an interesting and unique contribution to the federalism/urban policy literature and promises to stimulate more work in these fields. The book bridges a number of audiences. It will be of interest to individuals whose work focuses on the Americas but it will also provide an example of analysis of other federal countries. It should be useful to students and scholars of political science, planning, and urban policy." —Beryl A. Radin, Georgetown University"The past few decades have witnessed an explosion of metropolitan-scale expansion around the world. Metropolitan regions transcend long-standing political boundaries, challenging constitutional arrangements everywhere. As Spink, Ward and Wilson demonstrate, the Americas have witnessed a flowering over the past quarter-century of improvisational forms of Federalism. Favoring financial devolution and regional-based administrative arrangements, these alterations of past political arrangements create new forms of governance. Metropolitan Governance in the Federalist Americas opens the door for systematically integrating these new institutions and patterns into our thinking about development and governance throughout the hemisphere." —Blair A. Ruble, Woodrow Wilson Center"Metropolitan Governance in the Federalist Americas makes an important contribution to the broader debate on subnational governance and to the specific debate on metropolitan governance. The authors provide an excellent, accessible description and explanation of the wide variation in forms, rules, and outcomes associated with metropolitan governance in the Americas. A significant and useful feature of the volume is the authors' inclusion of case studies: they allow the reader to think productively about political history, economics, and the sociocultural context." —Brian Wampler, Boise State University