The Rise of Local Politics: A Global Review

Abstract

Not all politics is local. Not even local politics is necessarily local. The reemergence of local politics is not comparable to the nationalization of politics but is rather an element making multilevel policies more or less interconnected. This global review (not including North America) suggests that the rise of local politics is explained by three set of processes—( a) democratization, including protest, ( b) economic globalization, urbanization, and the deepening of territorial inequalities, and ( c) decentralization or deconcentration and the rise of local governance and policies. The rise of local politics is not a revival of the past but an element of the politics of scale taking. All over the world, local politics is increasingly about policies, governance, and political choice. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Political Science, Volume 24 is May 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

An economic geography perspective on city diplomacy

“…In a recent article, Le Galès (2021: 354) mentions that, as a result of the twin processes of globalisation and urbanisation, we have witnessed a ‘major reshuffling of territorial production of wealth, inequalities and poverty’ since 1989. He illustrates this by discussing the emergence of superstar cities (see also Kemeny and Storper, 2020; Le Galès and Pierson, 2019) and the increasing divergence between regions and territories within states.…”

City Diplomacy Beyond Metrocentricity: The Case of Flanders

“…This may not only limit their access to relevant policy knowledge, but also their opportunities to obtain international funding circulating in and through these city networks (see also Leitner et al 2002;La Porte 2013). In this context, city diplomacy can be expected to contribute to, rather than solving growing interregional differences and uneven development within the European Union (Goldsmith 1993;Van der Heijden et al 2019;Le Galès 2021). However, given a lack of empirical research on alleged bystanders, it remains unclear to what extent they engage in and how they can benefit from city diplomacy.…”

“…This increased professionalization and economic focus of city diplomacy can be associated with a broader shift to new public management (NPM) practices, which have been widely (yet selectively) embraced across Northern and Western European countries and cities since the 1980s. NPM basically refers to the notion that public administrations need to become more ‘efficient’ by developing and nurturing more businesslike orientations, including putting more emphasis on the evaluation and measurement of ‘outputs’ (Hood 1991; Le Galès 2021). In the urban studies literature, such practices and processes are commonly dubbed ‘urban managerialism’, even though in some places they have been gradually replaced by more risk‐taking, economic growth‐oriented practices of urban entrepreneurialism from the late 1980s onwards (Pahl 1975; Harvey 1989; Lauermann 2017).…”

“…In this context, city diplomacy can be expected to contribute to, rather than solving growing interregional differences and uneven development within the European Union (Goldsmith 1993; Van der Heijden et al . 2019; Le Galès 2021). However, given a lack of empirical research on alleged bystanders, it remains unclear to what extent they engage in and how they can benefit from city diplomacy.…”

“…Against the background of ongoing processes of urbanization, glocalization and state rescaling, cities are increasingly active on the international stage (Swyngedouw & Cox 1997; Brenner 2004; Curtis & Acuto 2018; Le Galès 2021). Cities' international engagements are often referred to as city diplomacy, which can be broadly defined as ‘the conduct of external relations undertaken by official representatives of cities with other actors, particularly other cities, nation‐states, nongovernmental organizations and corporations’ (Kosovac et al .…”