Semisovereign Cities: The Politics of Urban Development

Economic theories of urban politics are plentiful and commonly see city policy making as tightly constrained by the economic environment. This article challenges that view. It finds that the empirical literature on tax incentives fails to show that economic constraints on local policy making are as tight as economic theories contend. Slack in the intergovernmental marketplace allows room for a wide range of political influences on policy making. Economic logic, the article notes, contrasts with political logic and, even in the area of economic development, many case studies report that political logic prevails. The need, the author concludes, is to integrate economic and political logic into a comprehensive theory of urban political economy, and he argues that the emerging paradigm of regime theory is a promising approach to such a synthesis.