The Future of Municipalities in Metropolitan Areas: Evolution of Views on Metropolitan Governance

Abstract

In the 21st century, metropolitan areas will become the main supporting territories for the development of the Russian economy. Their development is associated with agglomeration problems, caused by the strengthening of “external effects”, which are manifested in a disproportional distribution of income across the metropolitan area, a gap in the quality of service delivery, and a decrease in economic and administrative management effectiveness. The catalyst for agglomeration problems is the high fragmentation of authority, the absence of a single decision-making center in the metropolitan area. Fragmentation can be eliminated in a number of ways. The answer to the question of how to solve the agglomeration problems and the future of municipalities in the metropolitan area is provided by three main theories of metropolitan governance: the theory of Metropolitan Reform, the theory of Public Choice, and the New Regionalism. This research analyzes and compares the data of theories, discusses the results of their practical application, and shows the strengths and weaknesses. On agglomeration statistics of OECD countries for 1951-2010, historical periods of their popularity are revealed. With probability of 99%, the hypothesis about the influence of civilizational features of the countries on the duration of the periods of theories’ popularity, and also on propensity to the centralized/decentralized model of metropolitan governance, is statistically proved.