Alan DiGaetano

Comparative Urban Governance An Integrated Approach

This article develops an integrated framework for comparing urban governance cross nationally. Joining together structural, cultural, and rational actor approaches to cross-national comparison, it explains the institutional milieux of urban governance in the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany. Comparison of public-private partnership arrangements in cities of these four countries is used to demonstrate the utility of this integrated framework.

Urban Regimes in Comparative Perspective The Politics of Urban Development in Britain

Until now urban regime analysts focused almost entirely on cities in the United States. In this article the authors broaden the definition of urban regimes to fit the British urban experience, then seek to trace the formation of regimes in Birmingham and Bristol during the 1980s. The formulation and implementation of specific economic development strategies and policies for each of these two cases is detailed, and finally, an evaluation of regime capacity for each is explored.

Urban Governance and Industrial Decline Governing Structures and Policy Agendas in Birmingham and Sheffield, England, and Detroit, Michigan, 1980-1997

There has been a marked increase in comparative research examining the dynamics of regime formation in the United Kingdom and the United States. These authors consider regime formation processes in three deindustrializing cities: Detroit, Michigan, and Birmingham and Sheffield, England. The article identifies two cross-cutting themes: the effects of national/international political and economic forces on local governance and the role of public and private interactions in regime formation. Finally, in an attempt to enlarge the scope of regime theory, the authors develop a comparative perspective on urban governance based on the concepts of governing structures and policy agendas.

Urban Governing Alignments and Realignments in Comparative Perspective: Developmental Politics in Boston, Massachusetts, and Bristol, England, 1980-1996

The author develops an analytical framework for making cross-national comparisons, referred to as modes of governance, that centers on the study of how governing coalitions are built and maintained. He lays out the theoretical framework for modes of governance, which draws upon regime theory but goes beyond its conception of power structures. A primary concern is understanding the underlying causes of urban governing realignments and their impact on local strategic decision making. To illustrate the approach, the author compares politics of development in Boston, Massachusetts, and Bristol, England. Finally, the author considers the theoretical implications of the Boston/Bristol comparison.

Creating the Public Domain Nineteenth-Century Local State Formation in Britain and the United States

To understand the origins of modern local governing institutions in Britain and the United States, this article examines how the forces of nineteenth-century urbanization, industrial and commercial development, nation-state consolidation, and democratization converged to form a historical context ripe for creating a public domain through a process of local state formation. The comparative-historical study also takes into account the role of political mobilization in the creation of the public domain by demonstrating that the formation of modern local state entailed highly contested political processes that produced uneven local state development between and within the two nations.

Urban Governance in the Gilded Age An Examination of Political-Culture, Social-Control, and Fiscal-Ideology Theories

Scholarly interest in urban politics of the Gilded Age has been both lively and enduring. A plethora of case studies and comparative analyses have produced a large body of historical knowledge about this period in urban political development. Nonetheless, little agreement about the nature of urban governance in this period exists. Indeed, the debate over who governed cities between 1870 and 1900 has intensified over the last decade. This author evaluates the political-culture, social-control, and fiscal-ideology theories of urban governance in the Gilded Age, using census data on ethnicity, urban growth, and municipal government finances.

The Origins of Urban Political Machines in the United States A Comparative Perspective

Scholarly interest in and debate about urban political machines waxed considerably in the 1980s. What is curious about urban political machines is their appearance in the United States. Using the analytical framework of American exceptionalism, the author compares late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century urban political development in Germany, France, England, and the United States in an attempt to identify the distinctive features of the American context that fostered the rise of urban political machines.