City Power

Urban Governance in a Global Age

Richard Schragger

Challenges conventional theories of city power
Articulates a vision of the democratic city appropriate for the new urban age
Celebrates urban politics and argues for its relevance and salience in the age of global capital
A thorough examination of the law and politics of the city and how they relate to the city's economic development

City Power

Urban Governance in a Global Age

Richard Schragger

Description

Reigning theories of urban power suggest that in a world dominated by footloose transnational capital, cities have little capacity to effect social change. In City Power, Richard C. Schragger challenges the existing assumptions, arguing that cities can govern, but only if we let them. In the past decade, city leaders across the country have raised the minimum wage, expanded social services, and engaged in social welfare redistribution. These cities have not suffered capital flight. In fact, many are experiencing an economic renaissance. Schragger argues that city policies are not limited by the demands of mobile capital, but instead by constitutional restraints serving the interests of state and federal officials. Maintaining weak cities is a political choice. In this new era of global capital, the power of cities is more relevant to citizen well-being than ever before. A dynamic vision of city politics for our new urban age, City Power reveals how cities can govern despite these constitutional limits - and why we should want them to.

City Power

Urban Governance in a Global Age

Richard Schragger

Introduction: Cities, Capital, and Constitutions

1. What is the City?
Building Blocks of Economic Life
Byproducts and Products
The City as a Process
Conclusion: Mystery and Modesty

2. Decentralization and Development
Competition and Growth
The Historic Vulnerability of City Status
What Does Decentralization Do?
Conclusion: Freeing Cities from a False Constraint

3. Vertical Federalism: Making Weak Cities
Legal Autonomy and Political Influence
Federalism and City Power
Technocracy versus Democracy
Conclusion: "Things Could be Worse. I Could be a Mayor."

4. Horizontal Federalism: Encouraging Footloose Capital
Inter-Municipal Border Controls
Subsidizing Mobile Capital
Conclusion: Economic [Dis]Integration

5. The City Redistributes I: Policy
The Limits of City Limits
Mandating a Living Wage
Land-Use Unionism
Regulating Through Contract
Conclusion: Exercising Urban Power

6. The City Redistributes II: Politics
Municipal Politics Matters
Immobile Capital
Translocal Networks
Economic Localism
Conclusion: The Re-emergence of the Regulatory City

7. Urban Resurgence
Urban Policy and Urban Resurgence
Assessing Economic Development Strategies
Uncertainty and Economic Development
Conclusion: Back to Basics

8. Urban Crisis
Debt and Discipline
Of Bailouts and Bankruptcy
The Politics of Municipal Failure
Conclusion: Marginal Cities

Conclusion: Can Cities Govern?

Notes
Acknowledgements
Index

City Power

Urban Governance in a Global Age

Richard Schragger

Author Information

Richard Schragger is the Perre Bowen Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he has taught for almost fifteen years. His scholarship focuses on the intersection of constitutional law and local government law, federalism, urban policy and the constitutional and economic status of cities.

City Power

Urban Governance in a Global Age

Richard Schragger

Reviews and Awards

"What if cities could exercise the power Schragger suggests? City Power provides a brilliant and challenging legal analysis of the possibilities of local government reform." -- Myron Orfield, University of Minnesota

"City Power challenges conventional thinking about what cities should be empowered to do. Instead of focusing on an inter-jurisdictional battle for economic growth, it argues, cities should concentrate on improving basic city services for their own citizens. Whether you agree or argue with it, this book will sharpen your thinking about city power and city powerlessness. A real contribution." -- Gerald Frug, Harvard Law School

"Cities are coming back and experimenting with new policies to improve the quality of life and reduce economic inequality. A tour de force of urban scholarship, City Power is the best single source on the possibilities and pitfalls of emerging local progressive movements." -- Todd Swanstrom, University of Missouri