John J Betancur
Who Runs Cities?
Today
• Political economy studies economic, political, social and
other factors and forces as pieces of the same puzzle.
Accordingly, it studies urban government at their
confluence differentiating among historical formations of
politics and economics through the concepts
• Urban regimes
• Urban Machines and
• Growth Coalitions
Most people would say,
Mayors and City Councils
Who Runs
Cities?
Not so fast!
As capitalism changes so do
cities and their governing
Dominant Actors/ Concentration
of Power
Primary Goals
Resources Used
Pathways for Influence
Growth Machine
Theory
-Real estate developers.
-Top government officials.
-City contractors and construction
companies.
-City newspapers.
-Create developments that
maximize the economic value of
urban land.
-Concentrate power among those
who favor this objective.
-Private money from donors, investors,
and development projects.
-Political capital from powerful allies.
-Planning organizations and hearing boards.
-Dominance of media coverage outlets.
-“Power of the purse”: ability to purchase land.
Pluralist Theory
-Power fragmented among a variety of
actors depending on policy area.
-Non-governmental organizations, local
elected officials, and bureaucracy.
-Neighborhood and community
development groups.
-Create a decentralized government
with many groups wielding
influence on their agenda.
-Promote access to disadvantaged
groups.
-Distribute resources based on
need.
-Political will from a large group or
community with shared interests.
-Pooled monetary strength and influence
from national organizations with local
chapters
-Local media attention, press releases, and sometimes
national publicity.
-Lobbying government officials or protesting decisions
through strikes.
-Electoral strength because of their large numbers.
-Government meetings, boards, or planning agencies.
Regime Theory
-Usually wealthy business, cultural, and
top political actors form a concentrated
ruling coalition with mutual goals.
-Sometimes other NGOs or actors
included.
-Maintain the leadership of the
urban regime.
-Create favorable policies for
business growth.
-Exclude other groups from having
influence.
-Top level political decision-making
power.
-Extensive donor network and control of
jobs in the city, economic resources.
Mayor’s office and other city government agencies.
-Access to elite actors in local media.
-Financing of major urban development projects or
cultural institutions.
Elite Theory
-Power concentrated in the hands of one
dominant actor who has the power to
shape the course of an issue to serve
his/her personal objectives.
Further personal objectives in a
particular issue area.
-Maintain a position of power and
leave behind a favorable legacy.
-Personal reputation and background of
power and success (charisma).
-Generally can harness all resources
necessary, monetary, political, and media,
to promote goals
-Extensive exposure of goals in local and national
media.
-Access to and trust of top-level decision-makers and
urban power brokers, or being one themselves.
-Whatever means necessary to achieve goals; will
make any alliances needed.
Electoral Theory
-Power decentralized, in the hands of
millions of voters who can decide who has
it.
-Power concentrated among elected public
officials.
-To maintain support of
constituency by furthering their
objectives and broaden appeal.
-To gain re-election and stay in
power.
-Networks of political party members and
donors. -Broader support from national
political party.
-Money from wealthy donors, businesses,
unions, or other groups.
-Passing laws and regulations that govern the city.
-Appointing public officials and members of
bureaucracy.
-Public media exposure.
-Handing out contracts for city projects.
Andrew R. Stevenson. (2007). Elites, Regimes, and Growth Machines: The Politics of Parks Development in Chicago and London, p. 45.
Constitutionally speaking…
• “The Tenth Amendment leaves establishing local government to state authority:
• “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it
to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
• Free to organize themselves, states have created municipal sub-divisions such as counties,
cities, townships, library boards, and special taxing districts. The relationship of these subdivisions between each other and the state, and the authority each sub-division possesses
are subjects of state constitutions and statutes.”
•
(David J. Shestokas, 2014, The US Constitution and Local Government at http://www.shestokas.com/constitution-educational-series/the-us-constitution-and-local-government/)
“City governments, run by mayors or city councils,
hold a restricted amount of governing power. State
and federal governments have been granted a
large portion of city governance as laid out in
the U.S. Constitution”
Constitutionally…
“The remaining power held by individual cities
becomes a target of numerous outside [and inside]
influences such as large corporations and realestate developers.”
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_politics_in_the_United_States)
Differences
• Market economics argues that government
should follow and defend the market and create
the conditions for its smooth functioning
• Political economists argue that the market is run
by powerful actors coalescing with government
to maximize their gains
US/UPP/UIC
Claim
• The US defines itself as a constitutional, representative
democracy
• Local administrations should be fairly elected and
represent the will of residents
• Democratically elected governments are expected to
balance the interests of the different components of a
city
• Representative local government has a legislative branch
whose charge is to legislate (city council) and an
executive body (mayor and cabinet) whose role is to
execute
Fact
• US cities are governed by regimes,
growth coalitions, machines and
other such arrangements… on behalf
of their interests
• At times organized around patronage
they rely on an electorate that
remains loyal if it gets the reward of
a job, a contract, a ‘favor’, special
privileges…
Early on, the creators of towns and cities in the
USA were individuals and public officials
dedicated to making money out of place-building
and “focused on attracting federal investment
behind their enterprises (“Jockeying for canals,
railroads and arsenals”)” (Logan and Molotch 57)
Today, local governments are dedicated for the
most part to create ‘good business climates’, that
is, environments that prioritize the interests of
businesses/secure investor confidence…
US/UPP/UIC
Historical
Trajectory
of local
government
in the USA
• “Until the 1930s, the federal government took a
laissez faire (hands off) approach to city problems.”
(268)
• With the Great Depression, the feds got heavily
involved in the facilitation of city development.
• With the new depression of the 1970s, federal
government divested itself asking municipalities to
‘take care of themselves’ and enacting unfunded
mandates often.
US/UPP/UIC
Criticism of
Political
Economy
Explanations
“Structural critiques may be … flawed by
their functionalism and economic
determinism”
While emphasizing the mechanisms that
generate systemic, cumulative, political
inequality, they are accused on neglecting
the role of agents and of resistance in the
shaping of government.
Machines
• “Political machine… is a party organization,
headed by a single boss or small autocratic group,
that commands enough votes to maintain political
and administrative control of a city, county, or state.
The rapid growth of American cities in the 19th
century… created huge problems for city
governments, which were often poorly structured and
unable to provide services. In those conditions,
political machines … were able to build a loyal voter
following, especially among immigrant groups” that
they compensated with jobs and benefits “offering
avenues of mobility at a time when” these were not
readily available (Encyclopedia Britannica)
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3XzdltsTfvE/maxresdefault.jpg
Chicago’s Democratic
Machine
• The Chicago growth machine (AKA the Democratic
Machine) started as a coalition between the Democratic
Party, labor and place-dependent entities (real estate and
media principally) that won the 1931 municipal elections
and secured its re-election since through a tightly
controlled and centralized organization dispensing public
jobs and powers in exchange for loyalty and unleashing
its might against opponents
US/UPP/UIC
The Chicago Democratic Machine
• Started with Bohemian immigrant Anton Cermak who became mayor in 1931 forcing the
democratic “party's dominant Irish contingent to accept other ethnic groups into his
“house for all peoples… when Cermak became the unintended victim of an attempted
assassination of president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt” in 1933, the Irish seized
control under Edward J. Kelly who doled “out patronage jobs, political appointments,
and favors to a broad spectrum of ethnic groups” thanks to the federal largesse of the
New Deal, organized crime, and black voters. Replaced by Martin H. Kennelly in 1947,
who was defeated by Richard D. Daley in 1955… The democratic party has run the city
since with the only exception of 1983-1987 when it was defeated by a Black and Latino
coalition with the support of progressive whites. (Encyclopedia of Chicago at http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/774.html)
http://www.trbimg.com/img-1359497121/turbine/chi-cermak29burial-19991228/480
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https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/effinghamdailynews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/b/f5/bf5a243d-9ad0-54b9-85d7-2fc70ac3e331/5aaec1ed96e03.image.jpg
Chicago’s
Democratic
Machine is said
• To have produced two
presidents, guess who!
https://live.staticflickr.com/3022/2636923419_214d1c2c1f_n.jpg
https://images.booksense.com/images/932/328/9780809328932.jpg
• The Machine’s “influence is seen to
often extend even further, to a wide
range of allies that variably promote
and support the common objective of
growth. These include professional
sports teams, organized labor, small
retailers, corporations, universities
and cultural institutions.”
The Growth
Machine
•
US/UPP/UIC
Rodgers, S. (2009) ‘Urban geography: urban growth machine’ In The international encyclopedia of human
geography. R. Kitchin and N. Thrift (eds). Oxford: Elsevier. Volume 12: 40-45.
Growth coalitions are the most common forms of
local government in the USA
Growth Coalitions
• Logan and Molotch characterize them as,
• growth oriented;
• property sector biased/controlled;
• supported by an ideology of value-free
development;
• based on local ‘political entrepreneurship’;
• with token representation of other
interests.
Common
Components
of Growth
Coalitions
• Place-based businesses helping elect and control politicians
• Global corporations
• Politicians
• Local media
• Utilities
• Universities
• Museums, theaters, expositions
• Professional sports
• Organized labor (?)
These and other groups
coalesce to form
governments that
represent and help them
US/UPP/UIC
• Organizations of civil society (?)
• Others (???)
The Basis of
these Coalitions
• “Although the growth coalition is based in land
ownership, it includes all those interests that profit
from the intensification of land use. Thus, executives
from the local bank, the savings and loan, the
telephone company, the gas and electric company,
and the local department store are often quite
prominent as well. As in the case of the corporate
community, the underlying unity within the growth
coalition is most visibly expressed in the intertwining
boards of directors among local companies. And, as
with the corporate community, the central meeting
points are most often the banks, where executives
from the utilities companies and the department stores
meet with the largest landlords and developers.” (Power at the
Local Level: Growth Coalition Theory by W. Domhoff. Who Rules America
athttps://whorulesamerica.ucsc.edu/local/growth_coalition_theory.html)
• The “Urban regime concept seeks to explain the
relationships between elected officials and those
influencing their decisions. They include:
Urban
Regime
• Corporate or development regimes promote
growth and normally reflect the interests of a city's
major corporations while neglecting distressed areas
and populations.
• Caretaker regimes normally oppose large-scale
development projects in fear of increased taxes and
of disrupting normal ways of life.
• Progressive regimes respond to the needs of
lower- and middle-class citizens and environmental
groups …
• Intergovernmental regimes exist in cities of
extreme need that are mismanaged and financially
troubled. The governor and state legislators are
important regime actors in these cases.
•
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_politics_in_the_United_States)
Pittsburgh's Allegheny Conference
• “Incorporated in 1944, the organization was the result of efforts undertaken by
Pittsburgh Regional Planning Association President Richard King Mellon and
Carnegie Institute of Technology President Robert Doherty to address obstacles
that might impede the economic growth of city. In particular, the Allegheny
Conference was concerned that the area’s overreliance of heavy industry and
resulting pollution might hinder efforts to attract and retain people and businesses
to the area. Early sponsors from the public sector included Pittsburgh Mayor
David L. Lawrence and Allegheny County Commissioner John Kane. Over the
ensuing decades, the Allegheny Conference has worked to establish Point State
Park, consolidate public transit operations, assist minority-owned businesses,
and develop Pittsburgh’s Cultural District.”
(https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/detre-library-archives/collectionhighlights/allegheny-conference-community-development)
https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/detre-library-archives/collection-highlights/allegheny-conference-community-development
‘Growth’ has been the magic word of
local governments
US/UPP/UIC
• Supporters argue that “growth strengthens the local tax base, creates jobs, provides
resources to solve existing social problems, meets the housing needs caused by
natural population growth, and allows the market to serve public tastes in housing,
neighborhoods and commercial development.” (Logan and Molotch 85)
Ultimately, for Political Economy
• “Growth politics is part of the everyday politics that decides who gets what, and where, in
cities” (Feagin and Parker 254)
US/UPP/UIC
US/UPP/UIC
• It places demands on public resources
negatively affecting the fiscal health of
cities
Is growth
good for
cities?
• “Local growth does not make jobs…
“redistributing the stock of jobs among
places may move the chairs around, but it
does not alter the number of chairs
available to the players” (89)
• The benefits of growth do not filter down;
indeed, growth tends to accelerate
inequality
• It tends to have negative consequences on
the physical environment
Costs of Ongoing Global-Local Agendas
Heavy Subsidies to corporations and place-based industries
such as construction and entertainment/tourism
Gentrification of strategic areas and abandonment of the
inner city
A global Chicago for the global classes … What about the
rest?
Corruption
• “Chicago has a long history of political corruption, dating to the
incorporation of the city in 1833. It has been a de
facto monolithic entity of the Democratic Party from the mid
20th century onward. In the book Corrupt Illinois (2015),
Gradel and Simpson reports that Chicago and Cook County's
judicial district recorded 45 public corruption convictions for
2013, and 1642 convictions since 1976, when the Department
of Justice began compiling statistics. This prompted many
media outlets to declare Chicago the "corruption capital of
America". Tabulating federal public corruption convictions
these authors Simpson found that Chicago was "undoubtedly
the most corrupt city in our nation", with the cost of corruption
"at least" $500 million per year.”
•
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_history_of_Chicago#:~:text=Chicago%20has%20a%20long%20history%20of%20political%20corruption%2C,Democratic%20Party%20from%20the%20mid%2020th%20century%20onward.)
The top 10
most-corrupt
cities in the
US
1.
Chicago
2.
Los Angeles
3.
New York
4.
Washington D.C.
5.
Miami
6.
Newark, NJ
7.
Cleveland
8.
Philadelphia
9.
Richmond, VA
10. Brooklyn, NY
Source: Sun Sentinl, https://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/sfl-top-10-most-corrupt-cities-us-pictures-photogallery.html
Criminal
Organizations
• “Criminal organizations co-exist with lawabiding productive agents and potentially
corrupt law enforcers. The crime
syndicate obstructs the economic
activities of agents through extortion and
may pay bribes to law enforcers in return
for their compliance in this.”
(Blackburn, Neanides an Rana, 2017)
Why do Special Interests Seek to Control Government?
Subsidies (e.g., taxes, bonds, land and zoning deals)
Voter support for projects (or approves them on behalf (??) of
voters)
Pro-developer policies such as FHA, The 1949 Housing Act and
Urban Renewal, CDBGs, UDAGs…
Government
versus
Governance
Today’s doctrines promote governance
over government
While government is understood as the
domain of politicians, governance calls for
concertation between government, the
private sector and civil society around the
goals growth and urban competitiveness
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IetA5zfF5cc/T7ft_E2It3I/AAAAAAAADfg/CCxIFHftsSI/s1600/have_a_nice_day_wallpaper_by_vv0jt3k-d3dg5wc.jpg
US/UPP/UIC