scholarly journals New municipalism in action or urban neoliberalisation reloaded? An analysis of governance change, stability and path dependence in Madrid (2015–2019)

Urban Studies ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 004209802092534
Author(s):  
Michael Janoschka ◽  
Fabiola Mota

Local politics in Spain has triggered iconic shifts over the last few years, and the electoral success of new ‘movement parties’ in particular has dramatically challenged the political establishment. Between 2015 and 2019, many municipalities – including, crucially, the two biggest cities, Madrid and Barcelona – were governed by coalitions originating from anti-austerity, anti-eviction and pro-democracy struggles. This has significantly affected hegemonic and widely normalised discourses supporting the neoliberalisation of urban politics, and to some extent has also prompted novel governance approaches. Based on empirical research undertaken with local councillors, officials, consultants and activists, the article develops an in-depth analysis of governance transformations in the Spanish capital of Madrid. By doing so, it evaluates the ambiguities and contradictions that the government coalition Ahora Madrid was facing during the 2015–2019 legislative term. The debate stimulates critical reflections for academics, practitioners and movements on the transformative capacities that new municipalisms may enact, as well as the constraints faced by established multi-level urban governance regimes.

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-77
Author(s):  
Christina-Marie Juen ◽  
Markus Tepe ◽  
Michael Jankowski

In Germany, Independent Local Lists (UWG) have become an integral part of local politics in recent decades . Despite their growing political importance, the reasons for their electoral rise have hardly been researched . Recent studies argue that Independent Local Lists pursue anti-party positions, which makes them attractive to voters who are dissatisfied with the party system . Assuming that a decline of confidence in established parties corresponds with the experience of local deprivation, this contribution uses a multi-level panel data set to investigate how socio-economic (emigration, aging, declining tax revenue) and political­cultural (turnout, fragmentation) deprivation processes affect the electoral success of Inde­pendent Local Lists . The empirical findings suggest that Independent Local Lists are more successful in municipalities where voter turnout has fallen and political fragmentation has increased .


2012 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel E. Esser

ABSTRACTPolitical realities in the capital cities of impoverished countries emerging from violent conflict illustrate how local actors can be hindered in conducting political affairs independently from the interests and influence of national governments as well as international agencies. This experience problematises the argument that the main cause of political impasse in African cities governed by opposition parties is incomplete decentralisation, whereby a devolution of responsibilities is not matched by a downward reallocation of resources. Although resulting competition constrains local governments' opportunities to deliver basic services, we need to look beyond the national scale to uncover the drivers of institutional change and gauge the promise of donor-driven local political empowerment. Urban politics in Africa continues to be shaped by global aid discourses, which are translated into local policy frameworks through interest convergence between international and national actors. The case of Freetown, Sierra Leone provides an illustration of such macro-level alignment and resulting local frictions. At the same time, it also demonstrates how local politics have challenged the technocratic, apolitical reinvention of urban governance in the global South perpetuated by the international aid industry.


Subject The Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. Significance After facing fragmentation in 2015, the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan (MBJ) sought to re-engage in local politics. The September 2016 electoral success of its political wing, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), revitalised its role as a leading opposition movement. Following reports that the new US administration was debating the designation of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB), its parent movement, as a terrorist organisation, the MBJ on January 23 announced an end to its 14-year boycott of dialogue with Washington. Impacts Jordanian authorities could be suspicious of the MBJ’s outreach to Washington, fearing it might become a conduit for US pressure. Radical ideologies may become more prevalent because of rising unemployment, outflanking the MBJ but enhancing its ‘moderate’ credentials. Regional and international instability could force the government and Brotherhood to work together to manage domestic dissent.


Author(s):  
Ardhin Primadewi ◽  
Mukhtar Hanafi

Higher education in Indonesia is regulated by the government with the Higher Education Accreditation (APT). In APT 3.0, Higher Education is required to be able to present performance data in the form of a Higher Education Performance Report (LKPT) as a reference in making a Self-Evaluation Report (LED). However, it is necessary to have an in-depth analysis to determine the gaps in the data required by Higher Education according to the APT 3.0 standard. The process of integrating the samples refer to the Zachman Framework (ZF). The results of this simplification that the data is available in support of APT 3.0 approximately 79% of the total data both inside and outside the core business of Higher Education and is well managed in an integrated database. The remaining 21% of the data that are not available is spread across several information systems, especially SIMMawa, SIMHumas and Cooperation, and SIMAKU. This shows that the change in accreditation standards that have been in effect since April 2019 has created a significant data gap for Higher Education. This research also produced an alternative model of integrated data management that can be used as input for Information System developers in the Higher Education scope.


1978 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 459-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Budge ◽  
Valentine Herman

Traditional theories of government coalition formation concentrate on formal criteria inspired by – if not directly drawn from – game theory. One such criterion is that the coalition which forms must be winning; another is that it should have no surplus members without whom it would still be winning, i.e. it should be minimal; and a third is that the number of parties should be as few as possible. The closest that such theories come to considering the substantive issues affecting the formation of coalitions in the real world is their focus on reducing the ideological diversity of parties within the government. On many occasions, however, such ideological considerations receive negligible attention from politicians, who often ignore size factors altogether.


1990 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Dean

In his celebrated presidential addresses to the Royal Historical Society between 1974 and 1976 Sir Geoffrey Elton explored three “points of contact” between central authority and local communities: Parliament, the royal council, and the royal court. Parliament, he argued, was “the premier point of contact,” which “fulfilled its functions as a stabilizing mechanism because it was usable and used to satisfy legitimate and potentially powerful aspirations.” Elsewhere Elton, and other parliamentary historians such as Michael Graves, Norman Jones, and Jennifer Loach, have stressed parliament's role as a clearing house for the legislative desires of the governing class. The author of this article has recently drawn attention to the pressures which private legislation placed on the parliamentary agenda and the attempts by the government to control it. All of this supports Elton's contention that parliament, from the perspective of central government, was indeed a vital means of ensuring stability and channelling grievances.However, few studies have viewed parliament from the perspective of the local communities and governing elites who sought parliamentary solutions to their problems or even parliamentary resolutions to their disputes with others. The major exception to this has been London. Helen Miller's seminal study of London and parliament in the reign of Henry VIII and Edwin Green's on the Vintners lobby, have been recently complemented by Ian Archer's on the London lobbies in Elizabeth's reign, Claude Blair's on the Armourers lobby, and my own study of the struggle between the Curriers and Cordwainers. These not only reveal the broader context of such disputes, but emphasize that parliament was only one of many arenas available to participants. This important point has also been stressed by Robert Tittler in his study of parliament as a “point of contact” for English towns.


2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELIZA W. Y. LEE

This article discusses the politics of social policy development in Hong Kong following the Asian financial crisis. It examines the cause, mode and political significance of social policy reform in an Asian late industrialiser that has been experiencing the twin pressures of economic globalisation and socio-economic change. Financial austerity has prompted the state to adopt social policy reforms through re-commodification and cost containment, resulting in the retrenchment of the residual welfare state. The state's policy choices are structured by local politics, including the state of political development and the path dependence nature of policy change. The article questions the effectiveness of the social authoritarian approaches adopted by the state in attempting to renegotiate the social pact with its citizens, and contends that progressive development in social policy is inevitably bound to democratisation.


1988 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 11-14
Author(s):  
Ronald J. Oakerson

Occasional references to the old radical teaching that “all politics is local” notwithstanding, American political scientists have by and large treated the study of local politics as a subject of much lesser importance than national politics. The standard introductory course in “American democracy” has a national focus—often it is exclusively national. Briefly, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the study of “urban politics” occupied a more prominent place in the discipline, but interest has waned. The priority concern in both teaching and research continues to be American national government and politics.This narrow focus leads to a distorted and truncated view of American democracy. Despite increased nationalization, state and local government has been and remains a basic element in the practice of American politics. The productivity and creativity of democracy in America are outcomes, not simply of a national political process, but of a complex system of governance in which local collective action provides much of the energy and initiative for addressing public problems. A vast amount of political activity in the United States is channeled through state and local institutions, where much of the work of public problem solving is done.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-213
Author(s):  
Abhay Pethe ◽  
Ramakrishna Nallathiga

Land has recently been looked upon as having substantial value in the Indian cities, especially in Mumbai. However, the allocation of land is a contested area with conflicting views and experiences. Governments intervene in land allocation through legislations for achieving equity but they do so without understanding the institutional structure and changing political, social and economic order. The Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act (ULCRA) is a piece of legislation through which Indian government made an attempt to redistribute urban land by limiting private ownership of it and confiscating the surplus. A critical review of its performance in India points to the difficulty of achieving such lofty goals in the complex real world, wherein different players actively use a variety of tactics to protect their interest, and also negotiate the outcome in the event of its repeal. The weak institutional capacity of the government and the changing governance framework render the outcomes detrimental. The experience of Mumbai city presented further points to the fact that the multiple actors thus have evolved their strategies to protect their interests through lobbying, corruption and legal wrangling. The experience of ULCRA, therefore, points to ground-level impediments to implementation of law and varied responses of the actors so as to preserve (or, even enhance) their particular interests. ULCRA also went against the decentralization of urban governance that began after the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act.


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