Governing Metropolitan Areas: Response to Growth and Change by David K. Hamilton

Author:David K. Hamilton [Hamilton, David K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: American Government, Political Science, State
ISBN: 9780815325536
Google: bbhc0nFukHIC
Goodreads: 11082602
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1998-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

International Relations Approach to Understanding Metropolitan Areas

Political scientists Victor Jones and Matthew Holden were two of the major figures in the application of an international relations analogy to understanding municipal behavior in metropolitan areas. This approach contends that local governments in urban areas behave in many ways like nation-states. They seek first of all to maintain their independence and autonomy. They compete with one another for development. Like nation-states, local governments seek to expand their territory and sphere of control through annexation and consolidation. They form coalitions for defensive purposes, such as suburban leagues of municipalities, and bargain for needed supplies, such as water and sewerage. Local governments develop institutional arrangements, for example, councils of governments to discuss matters of mutual interest. They also develop compacts among themselves, such as interlocal agreements for mutual advantage.56 Matthew Holden suggested that diplomacy was the key to the functioning of metropolitan areas because independent local governments behave much like nation-states in the international arena, bargaining and jockeying for advantage with other independent local entities.57 Victor Jones wrote that local governments are

tough organizations with many political and legal protections against annihilation or absorption by another government … [W]e should not be surprised to recognize among proposals for reorganizing them counterparts of world government, world federation, functional organization, and bilateral and multilateral compacts.58

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