Contemporary issues in the government and administration of Latin American megacities

Ward, Peter M.

doi:10.1590/s0034-75901996000300006

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 1 publication

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…35 Finally, the future of good governance is threatened by the fact that the urban area of Bogotá is spreading beyond its administrative boundary. Unlike the cities of Caracas, Mexico City or Rio de Janeiro, where administrative control has long been divided between different administrations (Ward, 1996;Myers and Dietz, 2002), the vast bulk of Bogotá's population has always lived within a single administrative area. However, in recent years, most of Bogotá's expansion has been occurring beyond the boundary of the Capital District, in municipios like Soacha, Mosquera, Madrid, La Calera and 35 Juntas de Acción Comunal and Associations of Parents were the joint highest forms of participation with 6 per cent of all respondents claiming to participate in each.…”

Section: Can the Miracle Survive?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unlike the military dictatorships and authoritarian governments that dominated the region in the 1970s, most national governments today are freely elected. Democratically elected national governments in turn have stimulated the rise of democracy at the local level and, today, most mayors and town councils are elected (Rodríguez, 1997;Tendler, 1997;Ward, 1996Ward, , 1998Myers and Dietz, 2002;Ruble, Stren, Tulchin and Varat, c.2003). Advocates of decentralisation argue that elected mayors are much more responsive to local needs than mayors appointed directly by the national president.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Good Urban Governance: Evidence from a Model City?

Gilbert

2006

Bull Latin American Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Few cities in Latin America provide much evidence of good governance. However, during the last fifteen years, Bogotá has been transformed and now qualifies in certain respects as an example of 'best practice'. The paper considers how Bogotá changed and whether it can continue its improvement, an especially interesting question insofar as a left-wing administration has been in charge since 2004. Of course, the city is by no means perfect and national issues continue to create difficulties both for the poor and for the local administration.

show abstract

Section: Can the Miracle Survive?mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Good Urban Governance: Evidence from a Model City?

Gilbert

2006

Bull Latin American Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Ward, Peter (1996), "Contemporary issues in the government and administration of Latin American mega-cities", in Alan Gilbert (editor) Hylton, Forrest (2007), " Medellín's makeover",New Left Review No 44, 4. Owing to local adjustments to the national electoral However, the crime fi gures that made Medellín internationally notorious in the 1980s now seem largely buried in the past, as they are in many other smaller cities.…”

Section: Four Cities Four Mayorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Being a mayor: the view from four Colombian cities

Dávila

2009

Environment and Urbanization

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Local governments are particularly relevant to people's daily lives as they manage the infrastructure and services that directly infl uence quality of life. Elected mayors tend to be more responsive to the needs of the poor majority than centrally appointed mayors or mayors who are elected by fellow councillors. Colombia's municipal mayors have been elected since 1988 and local governments have been given increased responsibilities and powers to raise local revenues. In this paper, four municipal mayors at the end of their four-year term refl ect, in their own words, on the role they have played in shaping their municipalities. They recount their personal engagement with local politics, share their views about their society and problems such as poverty, inequality and violence, describe the business of managing a local government and exercising leadership sometimes in diffi cult circumstances, refl ect on the qualities of a mayor, and explain how they sought continuity for their government programmes. They see themselves as outsiders struggling against local political machineries. With one exception, they do not seem to see the poor as their natural interlocutors on whom they can rely for unswerving political support and to whom most of their energy should be directed.

show abstract

“…The extent to which global forces impinge upon urban development is therefore a function of the pressure exerted by these forces on the urban fabric and the responses forged in turn by multilevel political systems (Hill & Fujita, 2003, p. 207). All this suggests that structures of city governance, as well as practices of decision making, constitute an essential aspect for understanding the relationship between globalization and urban change (Ward, 1996). City leaders need to respond to the problems and opportunities created by globalization and thus local politics in a global era must be understood in terms of the ideas, institutions, and interests shaping local policy processes (Clarke & Gaile, 1997; Suominen, Antola, & Mikkonen, 2001).…”

Section: A Global Object Of Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“Scenographic” and “Cosmetic” Planning: Globalization and Territorial Restructuring in Buenos Aires

Crot

2006

Journal of Urban Affairs

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The aim of the present article is to provide an account of the ways in which the impact exerted by globalizing forces on the territorial structure of the city of Buenos Aires has been mediated by local planning processes. After a brief review of the main trends and critiques found in the academic literature, the author examines how the territorial transformations that have taken place in Buenos Aires over the past fifteen years may not be simplistically related to-or blamed on-global pressures. It is argued that the determinacy imposed by long-term historical tendencies, together with specific territorial planning arrangements characteristic of the Argentine planning system, have played a major role in the production of Buenos Aires' territorial structuring over the past fifteen years.Although there are a number of analytical and empirical difficulties associated with the current body of literature on the relationship between cities and globalization, a major criticism refers to the preeminence attributed to global forces over local social and political processes. The aim of the present article is to provide an account of the ways in which the impact exerted by globalizing forces on the territorial structure of the city of Buenos Aires has been mediated by local political processes. After a brief review of the main trends and critiques found in the academic literature, the author examines how the urban transformations that have taken place in Buenos Aires over the past fifteen years may not be simplistically related to-or blamed on-global pressures. The power of local political processes and social movements, as well as the determinacy imposed by longer-term historical tendencies, has played a major role in the production of Buenos Aires' territorial transformations over the past fifteen years. This article focuses on the specific policy area where political processes meet with the urban landscape: the planning system. It is argued that the impact exerted by global economic forces on Buenos Aires' territorial restructuring since the early 1990s has been mediated by specific territorial planning arrangements that are characteristic of the planning practices of the Argentine political system.

show abstract

Contemporary issues in the government and administration of Latin American megacities

Cited by 6 publications

References 1 publication

Good Urban Governance: Evidence from a Model City?

Good Urban Governance: Evidence from a Model City?

Being a mayor: the view from four Colombian cities

“Scenographic” and “Cosmetic” Planning: Globalization and Territorial Restructuring in Buenos Aires

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About