Bulletin n. 2/2009
October 2009
CONTENTS
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
  • Jouve Bernard
    Urban governance: towards the emergence of a new policy instrument?
    in International Social Science Journal , Volume 59, Issue 193-194, September 2008 ,  2008 ,  343-357
    ABSTRACT Over the past 20 years in the academic world and the political sphere urban governance has come to represent both a new framework of analysis for urban policies and a tool for government used by a variety of international organisations, states and urban institutions. The term refers to two major observations: on the one hand, modern states are being transformed – and the role played by urban policies in this transformation can be vital. On the other, one must not overestimate the capacity of democratically elected institutions alone to regulate the economic and social problems they face. It is therefore necessary to consider more fully the role of civil society stakeholders in the formulation and implementation of urban policies. This article aims to show how the success of urban governance can be explained by the convergence of three processes from different social, institutional and political spheres: one from the social sciences, which analyses the transformations of the welfare state; one from the great international organisations in charge of development policies in the big cities in the South and one from the urban institutions of developed countries, particularly western Europe. What follows, then, is a concise report, with regard to the nature and exercise of urban power, on the implementation of what seems at first glance to be a new instrument for public action, which has replaced the mode of urban government based on monopolistic planning by various administrative bodies (international, national and local) and the local political elite.
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