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The State and the City

Author

Listed:
  • Gurr, Ted Robert
  • King, Desmond
Abstract
Many of the oldest and largest Western cities today are undergoing massive economic decline. The State and the City deals with a key issue in the political economy of cities—the role of the state. Ted Robert Gurr and Desmond S. King argue that theoreticians from both the left and the right have underestimated the significance of state action for cities. Grounding theory in empirical evidence, they argue that policies of the local and national state have a major impact on urban well-being. Gurr and King's analysis assumes modern states have their own interests, institutional momentum, and the capacity to act with relative autonomy. Their historically based analysis begins with an account of the evolution of the Western state's interest in the viability of cities since the industrial revolution. Their agument extends to the local level, examining the nature of the local state and its autonomy from national political and economic forces. Using cross-national evidence, Gurr and King examine specific problems of urban policy in the United States and Britain. In the United States, for example, they show how the dramatic increases in federal assistance to cities in the 1930s and the 1960s were made in response to urban crises, which simultaneously threatened national interests and offered opportunities for federal expansion of power. As a result, national and local states now play significant material and regulatory roles that can have as much impact on cities as all private economic activities. A comparative analysis of thirteen American cities reflects the range and impact of the state's activities at the urban level. Boston, they argue, has become the archetypical postindustrial public city: half of its population and personal income are directly dependent on government spending. While Gurr and King are careful to delineate the limits to the extent and effectiveness of state intervention, they conclude that these limits are much broader than formerly thought. Ultimately, their evidence suggests that the continued decline of most of the old industrial cities is the result of public decisions to allow their economic fate to be determined in the private sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Gurr, Ted Robert & King, Desmond, 1987. "The State and the City," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226310909, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:bkecon:9780226310909
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Richard Child Hill & Kuniko Fujita, 2000. "State Restructuring and Local Power in Japan," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 37(4), pages 673-690, April.
    2. Mike Morrissey & Frank Gaffikin, 2006. "Planning for Peace in Contested Space," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 873-893, December.
    3. Dominique Lorrain, 2005. "Urban Capitalisms: European Models in Competition," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 231-267, June.
    4. Vladimir Gel'man, 2003. "In search of local autonomy: the politics of big cities in Russia's transition," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 48-61, March.
    5. Ramos Chavez, Hector Alejandro, 2010. "De la Producción Agroalimentaria al Afianzamiento de Redes de Cooperación Solidaria en una Comunidad de México," 116th Seminar, October 27-30, 2010, Parma, Italy 95220, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    6. Jeroen van der Veer, 1994. "Metropolitan Government and City-Suburban Cleavages: Differences between Old and Young Metropolitan Areas," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 31(7), pages 1057-1079, August.
    7. Mike Goldsmith, 1992. "Local Government," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 29(3-4), pages 393-410, May.
    8. Loïc Wacquant, 2008. "Relocating Gentrification: The Working Class, Science and the State in Recent Urban Research," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 198-205, March.
    9. Jaime Palomera, 2014. "How Did Finance Capital Infiltrate the World of the Urban Poor? Homeownership and Social Fragmentation in a Spanish Neighborhood," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(1), pages 218-235, January.
    10. George A. Boyne, 1993. "Central Policies and Local Autonomy: the Case of Wales," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 30(1), pages 87-101, February.
    11. J G Groenendijk, 1998. "Local Policymaking under Fiscal Centralism in the Netherlands: Consequences for Local Environmental Policy," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 16(2), pages 173-189, April.
    12. Anttiroiko, Ari-Veikko, 2015. "Networks in Manuel Castells’ theory of the network society," MPRA Paper 65617, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Yonn Dierwechter, 2020. "New Urbanism as Urban Political Development: Racial Geographies of ‘Intercurrence’ across Greater Seattle," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 417-428.
    14. A.J. Jacobs, 2003. "Embedded Autonomy and Uneven Metropolitan Development: A Comparison of the Detroit and Nagoya Auto Regions, 1969-2000," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 40(2), pages 335-360, February.
    15. Stuart Wilks-Heeg, 1996. "Urban Experiments Limited Revisited: Urban Policy Comes Full Circle?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 33(8), pages 1263-1279, October.
    16. R Imrie & H Thomas, 1993. "The Limits of Property-Led Regeneration," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 11(1), pages 87-102, March.
    17. R A Kearns & J R Barnett, 1992. "Enter the Supermarket: Entrepreneurial Medical Practice in New Zealand," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 10(3), pages 267-281, September.
    18. Kai Zhou & Jaroslav Koutský & Justin B. Hollander, 2022. "URBAN SHRINKAGE IN CHINA, THE USA AND THE CZECH REPUBLIC: A Comparative Multilevel Governance Perspective," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 480-496, May.
    19. Yonn Dierwechter, 2020. "New Urbanism as Urban Political Development: Racial Geographies of ‘Intercurrence’ across Greater Seattle," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 417-428.
    20. Paul Kantor & H.V. Savitch, 2005. "How to Study Comparative Urban Development Politics: A Research Note," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 135-151, March.
    21. Lawrence Pratchett, 2004. "Local Autonomy, Local Democracy and the ‘New Localism’," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 52(2), pages 358-375, June.

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