Mobility politics : local ideologies in the multi-jurisdictional metropolis

Abstract

What is the interplay between local politics and metropolitan infrastructure planning in the context of the multi-jurisdictional governance of contemporary urban regions? I interrogate, first, how cities make policy when many governmental organizations are involved in city planning. And I ask, second, how politics--in the form of partisan affiliations and personal ideologies--influences political officials' decisions and ultimately the designs of new transportation projects and adjacent development. I develop a new theory for how regional planning works. I first show that, even when deprived de jure jurisdiction over transportation projects and land-use planning, local governments harness their perceived democratic legitimacy to exert de facto power over planning. Second, I demonstrate that they expand this power through alliances with other localities, structured on the concept of mutual deference.

Third, I offer new evidence that local action on land-use and transportation planning is differentiated by partisanship, beyond typical explanations of municipal choices being based on demographics or economics. Fourth, I develop a typology of land-use ideologies held by local officials and structured both by differences in views on the left/right spectrum and preferences for the scale of new spatial development, that I use to further explain heterogeneous local action. Finally, I show how actors representing multiple jurisdictions and with contrasting ideological viewpoints coalesce around a single regional transit project by adjusting for these ideologies in the planning process. I examine six transit infrastructure projects in France and the United States. For each, I conduct interviews and archival research.

My comparative research approach--which operates across country and project levels--allows the deciphering of common and distinctive traits within each, allowing me to detect how officials promote goals independently and through alliances, and to identify the influence of partisanship and officials' ideologies on outcomes.