Cities Transformed Demographic Change and Its Implications in the Developing World (2003) / Chapter Skim
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9. The Challenge of Urban Governance
9. The Challenge of Urban Governance
Pages 355-409
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From page 355... ...
With the spread of democratization and decentralization now under way almost everywhere, local governments are increasingly being required to operate with the speed and efficiency of private business while facing ever more complex political and regulatory issues. Local governments must digest an immense amount of information to perform their duties in a fair and efficient manner.
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From page 356... ...
There are almost no examples of integrated databases for the constituent parts of large metropolitan regions. This is hardly surprising given the large number of political entities constituting most metropolitan regions, with their differences in age, socioeconomic needs, and financial and managerial capacity.
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From page 357... ...
find that an important element in the development process, explicitly lacking in many official and agency-based definitions, is the connection of government, and particularly local government, to emerging structures of civil society. Accordingly, they define governance as "the relationship between civil society and the state, between rulers and ruled, the government and the governed" (McCarney, Halfani, and Rodriquez, 1995: 95~.
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From page 358... ...
fully democratic local government system, an elaborate process of dialogue and negotiating forums ensured a relatively smooth movement from exclusion to inclusion. Jaglin argues that the complexity and multisectoral nature of this process can best be described under the rubric of governance.
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From page 359... ...
The task of analyzing these changes in the patterns of governance in developing countries is complicated by the diverse paths and scenarios of urbanization and socioeconomic development that exist in the developing world. Yet the expansion of the urban built environment is occurring everywhere, and thus the development of systems of urban governance that can cope with urban expansion is a major priority.
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From page 360... ...
Webster points out there are more than 2,000 local government authorities (many of them serving small villages) in this outer region of urban activity.
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From page 361... ...
These categories reflect attempts in other parts of the world to manage large metropolitan regions, a subject to which we return in the penultimate section of the chapter. The first category, which can be called the fragmented model, is characterized by a myriad of autonomous local government units, each with jurisdiction over a particular function and/or territory.
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From page 362... ...
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From page 363... ...
are more likely to focus on urban services, public finance economists on the financial dimension, sociologists and criminologists on the diversity and security dimensions, and political scientists and public administration specialists on the authority dimension. Each of these dimensions can be related to demographic dynamics.
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From page 364... ...
Prominent among these strategies are reforms in the governance of urban services from arrangements based entirely within the public sector, to arrangements based on partnerships with private and nongovernmental groups (Fiszbein and Lowden, 1999; Freire and Stren, 2001) , to various kinds of arrangements with private service providers (Batley,1996~.
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From page 365... ...
, Shanghai lagged in several important indices of urban infrastructure, including per capita living space and per capita paved roads" (Wu, 1999a: 208-9~. The central government's neglect of Shanghai began to reverse itself in the early to mid-1980s, culminating in a 1988 agreement between the two to give the city more autonomy in revenue collection and expenditure.
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From page 366... ...
. As impressive as they are, these infrastructure achievements have done little to improve the living conditions of the large majority of Shanghai's working population, whose per capita living space is no more than 8 square meters on average, with 10 percent of the population living in a space of less than 4 square meters (Wu, 1999a: 208~.
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From page 367... ...
Estimating the growth in the proportion of the urban population living in "selfhelp" housing in four major cities of Latin America, Gilbert (1998) shows that the proportion in Mexico City increased from 14 to 60 percent between 1952 and 1990; that in Lima, Peru, increased from 8 to 38 percent from 1956 to 1989; and that in Caracas, Venezuela, increased from 21 to 42 percent from 1961 to 1991.
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From page 368... ...
, the figure is 59 percent; and for Latin America, the comparable figure is 74 percent. These figures show that access to adequate housing is still a distant goal for large numbers of people living in these three regions; they also show all too clearly that there is a strong relationship between the per capita income of countries (and cities)
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From page 369... ...
In terms of water, sewerage, electricity, and telephone connections, the proportion of urban households receiving urban services is much lower in developing regions. By region, however, there is a clear gradation for each of these services from a low in Africa, through Asia and Latin America, to a high in the industrialized world.
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From page 370... ...
While the individual returns may be somewhat unreliable, the UNCHS survey indicates that in 1993, the average per capita revenue received by municipal governments in Africa was US$15.20, in Asia (Pacific) $248.60, in Latin America and the Caribbean $252.20, and in the industrialized world $2,763.30.
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From page 371... ...
As discussed in the following section, one important means of dealing with local service capacity problems is to devolve more power to local authorities. While there have been problems in many countries with undertaking Revolution before the necessary financial resources are available, local governments are often in closer touch than more central authorities with community and other civil society groups that can support service initiatives.
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From page 372... ...
In India, an important constitutional amendment in 1992 provided an illustrative list of functions that were henceforth to be considered appropriate for municipal government; among these functions were planning for economic and social development, alleviation of urban poverty, and even urban forestry. The amendment also limited the degree to which state governments are able to suspend democratic local government (a practice that, until then, had frozen democratic local governments in nearly half of the largest cities in the country)
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From page 373... ...
Under recent conditions of crisis in such countries as Argentina, Brazil, and Indonesia, local authorities have been negatively affected even though they have been able to borrow and their potential sources of local revenue have been augmented by improving the tax base. Comparative data on local government revenues and expenditures are particularly difficult to obtain.
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From page 374... ...
Under Bolivia's Ley de Participacio'n Popular (the implementation of which began in 1994) , municipal governments automatically receive 20 percent of all central government revenues through fiscal transfer.
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From page 375... ...
The board consists of most of the "elite" of the town, elected by the local people, but includes no current local government officials. It not only makes decisions on projects and fund-raising but
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From page 376... ...
On the one hand, as researchers have pointed out, local governments and officials in China have been developing large collective enterprises, whose income (described above as "off-budget") can be used in a constructive fashion for administration, infrastructure improvement, and the establishment of new enterprises that can expand the revenue base of local governments (Oi, 1992,1995; Walder, 1994~.
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From page 377... ...
They often successfully force administration officials to talk in ordinary people's terms and, in doing so, unmask attempts to veil in technical complexity the real reasons for rejecting or changing the demands prioritized. Abers also argues that participatory budgeting would not have been possible without the active, time-consuming, and persistent efforts of local government officials to work with neighborhood groups.
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From page 378... ...
Sao Paulo had a less-than-successful experience with participatory budgeting under mayor Luisa Erundina during 19891992 (Singer, 1996~. Since the election in 2000 of another PT administration under Mayor Marta Suplicy, the participatory budgeting process has been revived.
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From page 379... ...
Those in the periphery are incomplete and more "fragile," while older areas are well established with clearly defined boundaries. Even in Latin America, where most cities date from the sixteenth century, a process of "tribalisation" seems to be under way: the city is splitting into different separated parts, with the apparent formation of many "microstates." Wealthy neighbourhoods provided with all kinds of services, such as exclusive schools, golf courses, tennis courts and private police patrolling the area around the clock intertwine with illegal settlements where water is available only at public fountains, no sanitation system exists, electricity is pirated by a privileged few, the roads become mud streams whenever it rains, and where house-sharing is the norm.
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From page 380... ...
As a result of many of these factors, knowledgeable commentators were still observing social segregation in Latin American cities toward the end of the l990s. Thus, Gilbert (1996: 91-3)
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From page 381... ...
and is the second-largest metropolitan area in Latin America (after Mexico City)
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From page 382... ...
living in a permanent condition of denial of basic human environmental needs makes inhabitants feel as if their lives are worthless" (Rolnick, 1999: 17~. In particular, the peripheral areas of the city of Sao Paulo exhibit many of the preconditions for violence, in that resentment and anger build up when infrastructure and services are not easily available.
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From page 383... ...
Metro Manila incorporates 17 municipalities (or local government units) occupying a territory of 636 square kilometers.
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From page 384... ...
While there is an upper-tier authority with responsibility for the whole metropolitan area, its powers and even its budget are limited, especially relative to the local government authorities, whose powers were increased under the 1987 Constitution and the 1991 Local Government Code. The power of the metropolitan authority was not enhanced by the fact that Imelda Marcos had been appointed governor at the outset of the authority's life, presiding over the Metro Manila Commission until President Ferdinand Marcos was toppled in 1986.
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From page 385... ...
Data on homicide in cities are often cited as the most striking indication that urbanization in the developing world produces a decline in social cohesion and an increase in conflict and insecurity. Table 9-3 summarizes some data on homicide rates for different cities in Latin America, indicating major differences among countries, as well as rather important variations within countries.
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From page 386... ...
Among the reasons social capital is important is that both the size and density of social networks and institutions, as well as the nature of interpersonal interactions, significantly affect the efficiency and sustainability of development processes. Violence erodes social capital when it reduces the trust and cooperation within formal and informal social organizations and among their members that are critical for a society to function (Moser, 1998; Moser and Holland, 1997~.
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From page 387... ...
As discussed earlier, fear of crime in Sao Paulo has led middle- and upper-income citizens to segregate themselves spatially from the rest of the city (Caldeira, 1996~. In some contexts, violence both contributes to and is the result of the creation of "perverse" social capital.3 A primary example of perverse social capital is gang involvement, whereby young people bereft of strong family and community support form mutually reinforcing groups.
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From page 388... ...
highlights five key factors linked to youth gangs in Latin America: their context is generally that of urban poverty; their behavioral patterns and formation are highly localized; their relationship with the local community may be protective or violent; when involved in drug trafficking, they tend to be more violent; and postwar migration and deportation of illegal immigrants are affecting their formation. Social capital in household relations Violence erodes beneficial household relations when it reduces the households' capacity to function effectively as a unit.
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From page 389... ...
Local municipal government tends to represent the lowest level at which planning can take into account the needs of local communities and their particular crime problems, and can therefore create effective linkages among locally elected officials, municipal departments, and the national police service (Straw, 1998~. Nevertheless, budget constraints and a lack of capacity often characterize developing-country municipal governments, and the consolidation of local government structures presents an opportunity to integrate crime prevention into the line functions of municipal departments (Shaw,1998~.
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From page 390... ...
These driving forces have been reinforced by specific institutional reforms in particular countries, such as the constitutional reforms in Brazil, India, and South Africa discussed above; the Ley de Participacio'n Popular in Bolivia; the Local Government Code of 1991 in the Philippines; the extension of communal status to towns and cities, small towns, and all rural settlements in Cote d'Ivoire in 1980, 1985, and 1996, respectively (Crook and Manor, 1998: 141~; and a host of other reforms, well documented in the literature on Mexico, Colombia, Uganda, Indonesia, Thailand, and China. The particular governance structure currently in place in individual countries and cities is a result of the intersection of the decentralization process; the level of democratic reforms expressed through municipal restructuring; and local circumstance, including leadership and the general involvement of civil society groups.
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From page 391... ...
This coastal metropolis, often referred to as "the pearl of the lagoons," represents some 40 percent of the country's total urban population and about 75 percent of its formal employment (Attahi, 2000: 10~. Like other major cities in the West African francophone region, and in spite of its relative affluence in comparison with other cities of the region, Abidjan suffers from insufficient housing and infrastructure (20 percent of its population lives in irregular or "spontaneous" housing in unserviced neighborhoods)
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From page 392... ...
Finally, 3 years after the death of President Houphouet in 1993, his successor extended municipal status to the remaining rural areas of the country, increasing the total number of local government units from 136 to 196 (Crook and Manor, 1998: 141~. In terms of the fastidious details of its planning, as well as the follow-up of support to local councils, the Ivoirian decentralization exercise stands as one of the most thoroughgoing and successful in Africa.
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From page 393... ...
These include the inspection of construction sites, the issuing of drivers' licenses, and the control of firefighting and rescue operations. Since the main source of the City's revenues, the property tax, is collected by the national government and then remitted to the communes (which then pay a fixed proportion to the City)
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From page 394... ...
Mexico City, like many Latin American cities, has seen a dramatic rise in violence levels in the 1990s. Private security firms are increasingly hired to secure the perimeters of upper and middle income residential neighborhoods, making them effective no-entry zones for working class and outsider populations.
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From page 395... ...
The arbitrary nature of local government in the capital city,
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From page 396... ...
This revision, a result of negotiations among the three major political parties, recognizes local government as an essential level of Mexican government. It not only states that local governments (municipios)
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From page 397... ...
, including Oaxaca state, where indigenous groups elected their civic leaders in 413 municipalities (Rodriguez, 1998: 177~. At this point, most major cities were under opposition control, with PAN mayors being significant in the more-developed north and the PRD more important in the area around Mexico City and in the south.
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From page 398... ...
The new head of government or mayor, who won by an overwhelming margin, was 63-year-old Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, himself a former candidate for president and the son of a revered former president. At the same time that the PRD won the local government elections, it also captured 28 of the 30 single-member Mexico City congressional district seats in the national elections.
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From page 399... ...
With the introduction of market-oriented reforms beginning in 1978, local governments (as discussed above) were given more freedom to raise and distribute financial resources, responsibilities were transferred from the national to the local level, and the government stopped managing every detail of urban citizens' lives.
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From page 400... ...
; and employment placement (Choate, 1998: 16-25~. According to observers, the average age of committee members is declining, and the committees are hiring more educated, experienced, and professional staff; paying more attention to the needs of the people through social surveys and feedback mechanisms; and connecting with newly formed associations, such as volunteer social service groups, proprietor and land development associations, and cultural organizations (Choate, 1998; Read, 2000; Ying, 2000; Zhang,2001~.
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From page 401... ...
Common to most if not all of these new institutional approaches are three main elements: greater involvement of NGOs and community groups in local governance, often through a more plural and democratic electoral system; greater transparency and accountability in both the planning and implementation of local policy; and the devolution of more legal and constitutional responsibility for urban affairs from the state or national level to the local level. From the election of mayors and local councillors across Latin America, to the increasing pluralism of the political process in Africa, to the incorporation of massive numbers of new actors in the Indian and Philippine municipal systems, to the involvement of nonstate actors in service and infrastructure provision in China, a massive opening of political space is taking place at the urban level.
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From page 402... ...
These agencies include the Urban Management Program of UN Habitat (formerly UNCHS) ; the World Bank; a number of international municipal and local government associations; and various bilateral aid agencies, such as the U.S.
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From page 403... ...
While improving governance is important in smaller and intermediate-sized cities, the analysis of governance models most commonly involves the largest cities, which have the most at stake in the new economic dispensation. By common agreement, achieving good governance in the largest metropolitan regions is more difficult than in smaller cities.
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From page 404... ...
As we have seen in the case of Mexico City, the capital region now includes some 41 municipalities in two states, a Federal District, and 16 subunits within that district that are equivalent to municipalities. The metropolitan area of Sao Paulo consists of 39 separate municipalities, while Greater Santiago is made up of 34 separate communes.
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From page 405... ...
In South Africa, there is currently a trend toward consolidation, but in the period immediately after democratization (in the early to mid-199Os) , Cape Town was made up of 39 local government units and Durban as many as 69.
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From page 406... ...
An argument can be made, based on public-choice principles, that a number of small local jurisdictions is superior to a single overarching government. Since a variety of small local government units can offer different baskets of services and taxes, the whole local area can operate as a quasi-market, supporting greater efficiency through a kind of competition among jurisdictions based on the choices of citizens about where to live (Tiebout, 1956; Ostrom, Tiebout, and Warren, 1961~.4 It appears clear that, whatever the challenges to governance in large urban regions in the developing world, no single or even dominant model of metropolitan governance is likely to emerge in the foreseeable future.
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From page 407... ...
One way of characterizing these trends is to see them as a movement from "local government" to "local governance." The term "urban governance" implies a greater diversity in the organization of services, a greater variety of actors and stakeholders, and a greater flexibility in the relationship between municipalities and their citizens. These trends in institutional reform can be illustrated by the example of the Bangkok Metropolitan Region.
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From page 408... ...
Since the late 1980s, major decentralization initiatives that have strengthened municipal governance have taken place in a large number of countries. Examples such as Abidjan in Cote d'Ivoire, Mexico City, and some of the larger coastal cities in China illustrate a wide variety of institutional reforms that have been taking place at the local level around the developing world.
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From page 409... ...
This was understandable as long as local governments had few powers and little ability to effect changes in the urban situation. But issues of metropolitan reform are on the table in many countries and need to be addressed using analytical approaches that link politics, administrative reform, and the other social sciences in the same .
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