Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Globalization brings competition over the quality of governance and associated institutions at the municipal level, trending toward different solutions to economic growth in the municipalities of the three NAFTA nations. In response to the challenges of globalization many institutional arrangements have been put in place in cities and urban regions throughout North America. Para-diplomacy, even reaching down to the municipal level has become a standard activity of ?global cities.? A variety of strategies have been developed to address these concerns. In the United States, the consolidation of urban governments is almost a dead issue. The academic literature in recent years emphasizes ?governance? rather than ?government,? and cooperation among diverse units rather than consolidation. In this respect, U.S. trends have not influenced our Canadian neighbors. Throughout Canada, a major response to globalization has been institutional change in the form of municipal mergers, consolidations, and amalgamations which have proceeded at a rapid pace throughout the last decade. Among the larger cities this started with the 1997 creation of the Toronto ?Megacity? an amalgamation of six local governments, and an existing metropolitan level government. In Quebec we see the creation of eight ?megacities,? which as with Ontario?s cities, were imposed by a provincial government, despite substantial local opposition. In Mexico, there has been a strong move to decentralize municipal management from the constraints of overly centralized Federal and State control so as to make them more efficient and more capable of responding to global economic challenges and competitiveness. In this paper we compare the emerging structural/institutional arrangements in the three NAFTA countries and assess the theoretical and practical relevance of each as a model in terms of global competitiveness, issues of equity and the opportunity for democratic governance and representation.