December · Volume 90 · Number 11

Local Management in a Global Era

by Robin Hambleton and Jill Simone Gross

The suggestion that locally elected officials and local government managers in the United States now operate in a rapidly globalizing world is not news. Because managers encounter the impact of global forces every day in their communities of all sizes, few local leaders ask whether global forces are going to impact their localities. Instead, they are asking more salient questions: What might globalization mean for my community? How do we take advantage of global changes? What lessons can we draw from the experiences of other countries?

As authors who have written on this subject, we recognize that the dynamics of globalization present local governments in all countries with formidable new challenges.¹ But it is also the case that globalization is opening up remarkable new opportunities for local government leaders and managers. In this article, we suggest that we are entering an era in which cross-national policy learning can lead to significant advances in the practice of local government management in the United States.

Successful communities of the future will be the innovative ones that know how to learn—not just from other path-breaking communities in the United States but also from inventive communities in other countries.

Why Study Experience Abroad?

There are several reasons why we encourage all local leaders to consider adopting an international learning perspective. At a general level, it can be claimed that the forces of globalization threaten local democracy. This claim grows out of the fact that many decisions made by multinational companies and distant public agencies are often insensitive to place. A classic example is when a plant closure decision is made in the boardroom of a private company in a far-off land with little or no regard for local consequences.

Similarly, localities are often buffeted by decisions made at the supranational level by organizations like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Group of Eight. In our tightly knit global economy, distant decision makers can now have a profound impact on the lives of local residents, who can feel increasingly disempowered, isolated, and unable to plan for their futures.

For city and county leaders to respond creatively to situations of this kind, it is imperative for them to understand how other localities are responding to these complex international dynamics. We do not wish to imply that local leaders do not understand global economic and political forces. Rather, we suggest that, if they are to lead effectively on behalf of their local communities, civic leaders need to be at least as well informed about the diversity of possible local responses to global dynamics as the other private and public stakeholders involved in urban development.

In addition to this general argument for global awareness, there are three specific reasons why an international outlook can enhance local democracy in the United States.

First, experience abroad can act as an invaluable source of practical and useful ideas. Thousands of local authorities around the world are constantly breaking new ground in how to enhance the quality and responsiveness of local government and the quality of local services. Why deny ourselves the opportunity to learn from others?

Second, in a world in which unprecedented numbers of people are now migrating across national boundaries, it is essential for all city and county authorities to expand their intercultural knowledge and understanding. The needs of increasingly diverse communities now present major challenges for U.S. local governments.²

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the United States now has a minority population that exceeds 100 million; that is, one-third of all residents consider themselves members of a minority. The growth in the diversity of the national population is a function of both natural increase and immigration.

Between 2000 and 2006, there was a 51 percent increase in the number of permanent immigrants arriving in the United States. In addition, according to the U.S. Department of State, some six million temporary visas (for work, study, and tourism) were granted during this period, with a breakdown as follows: Asia, 38 percent; North America, 23 percent; Europe, 18 percent; South America, 15 percent; Africa, 4 percent; and Oceania, 1 percent.

In many communities, ethnic diversity is stimulating economic and cultural vibrancy, but it is also the case that the rapid arrival of large numbers of newcomers in a particular locality can create significant challenges for those leading and managing local governments. The United States is not alone in experiencing dramatic population change, and we believe that U.S. jurisdictions can learn much from the way jurisdictions in other parts of the world are managing ethnic diversity.

Third, and at a broader and more conceptual level, study of local government approaches and practices in other countries can enhance the ability of U.S. local authorities to anticipate future events. The Census Bureau informs us that in 2005 almost 40 million Americans (12 percent) were 65 or older, and census projections suggest that one in five Americans will be over 65 by 2030. One recent article in PM stated “This ballooning population of eligible retirees will result in service changes across the nation.”³

An aging population means that communities will need to adapt their physical infrastructure, their social care support systems, and even the ways they do outreach. Many seniors not only lack access to the World Wide Web; they might even lose their television connections unless they invest in a new digital television system. These are trends that European and Japanese city leaders have been grappling with for some time now.

Climate change is another example of a major challenge for local government planners and managers across the country. Planning and designing sustainable cities and neighborhoods is an area where European cities have built up advanced experience over several decades. Some Swedish cities are, astonishingly, already close to being 100 percent free of fossil fuels, and the European Union has encouraged local authorities to adapt to climate change through a variety of measures.

Because we now live in a hyperconnected world, it follows that any professionally run organization, whether public, private, or voluntary, needs to be alert to trends and developments in other parts of the world that may turn out to have a decisive impact on the U.S. context. Note that none of these arguments suggests that we should engage in a search for global best practice in local government. There is no such thing. Instead, places are distinctive. The challenge, then, is to draw lessons from other countries, not merely copy their practices. Successful policy transfer almost always involves adaptation to local circumstances rather than replication.

OUR URBAN FUTURE

More people now live in urban areas than ever before. More than that, it is now the case that the urban population outnumbers the rural. In 2005, most of the 6.5 billion people on the planet lived in rural areas—roughly 3.3 billion rural and 3.2 billion urban. In 2007, demographers argued about the precise date that the urban population of the world overtook the rural.

More to the point, the population projections for the planet suggest that the world’s urban population is set to skyrocket. As shown in Figure 1, the population of the world is expected to climb from 6.5 billion in 2005 to 8.2 billion in 2030. By then, 5 billion people (or 61 percent of the world population) will live in urban areas. This is a staggering increase of 1.8 billion in the world’s urban population in a comparatively short length of time.

North America is now the most urbanized continent in the world. According to the United Nations, some 79 percent of the population lived in urban areas in 2007, set to leap to a startling 87 percent by 2030. Europe and Latin America are not far behind. At the same time, not all cities are growing. Some—Chicago and Philadelphia, for example—are even shrinking like many cities in central and eastern Europe.

Others, like North Las Vegas, are experiencing unprecedented growth—in this case, a 67 percent increase in population between 2000 and 2006, a pace of growth found in numerous Latin American and Asian cities. Whether your community is growing or shrinking, the chances are that cities in other countries have experienced similar challenges and could well have developed strategies and approaches—unseen in America—that could spur fresh thinking among your elected officials.

GLOBAL COMPETITION

Some observers take the view that the forces of globalization require cities to fight tooth and nail for “footloose capital.” To maintain their competitive position in a winner-takes-all world, so the argument goes, cities have to become servants of private capital. “Get out there and pave the way for the private sector or the jobs will go elsewhere” seems to be the mantra of many urban management consultants.

The authors in our book, Governing Cities in a Global Era, argue that this is not a sophisticated approach. Clearly, cities need to ensure that they are attractive places in which to live and work if they are to enjoy economic prosperity, but many city leaders now realize that it is the distinctiveness of a city that holds the key to economic success. Divergence, not convergence, appears to be a wise path for the future.

Thus, innovative elected officials and managers now spend much of their time enhancing the “people climate” rather than the “business climate” of their local governments. Striving to be like everywhere else sounds like a losing strategy if you are trying to attract talented wealth creators. These professionals, sometimes dubbed the “creative class,” clearly do not want to live in “could be anywhere” urban areas.⁴ They seek locations that support a diversity of cultural and lifestyle options.

One size does not fit all. Communities can use their local advantages to develop mutually supportive arrangements among the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

EMERGING LESSONS FROM GLOBAL RESEARCH ON CITIES

The world’s experiences offer many lessons for U.S. managers. Here we highlight five insights that we hope will be of practical use in U.S. local governments.

First, place matters. Today’s global forces map onto an uneven terrain of politics and power, and this unevenness remains even in an era of hyperconnectivity. To suggest that the world is flat, as some commentators have claimed, is misguided.⁵ “Flat“ implies that connectivity, coupled with the lowering of competitive barriers between nations, will allow for the emergence of a global free market, which will benefit all populations in equal measure. This perspective, however, ignores the fact that there are huge variations in the capacity of different localities to take advantage of global opportunities. Globalization produces new centers and margins within the global economic system.

Thus, communities occupying strategic nodes within this system are advantaged. They become magnets for people, investment, resources, and power. Places outside these flows can spiral into decline. Diversification of approaches rather than homogenization offers the hope for the future, as this global competition among places continues to heat up. It follows that local leaders should tune their strategies as carefully as possible to the local, regional, and national context and strive to be bold in trying out new ideas. Playing to the distinctive strengths of a particular community becomes critical. All of this reinforces the importance of local leaders developing their own “take” on future scenarios for their community.

Second, cross-national exchange relating to urban innovations is on the rise, and it is clear that this process can stimulate civic pride as well as spur fresh thinking. Promoting green buildings, creating networks of bike paths, introducing bus rapid transit and light-rail networks are just a few of the many urban innovations that U.S. cities and counties have imported from Europe and Latin America in recent times. Similarly, new approaches designed to integrate migrant populations into local decision making, developed in cities like Paris and Copenhagen, are being applied and advanced in cities like Portland, Oregon.

Meanwhile, U.S. local governments have exported concepts and practices, too. The Baltimore, Maryland, approach to waterfront renewal in its inner harbor, for example, has spurred marina-style urban development in places like Bristol and Cardiff in the United Kingdom. A key lesson is to focus attention on the specific challenges facing your community and consider how experience in other countries might be able to stimulate fresh thinking relating to the agenda you face locally. The experience of a distant city, particularly one that has coped with significant social and economic restructuring, may turn out to be a source of inspiration.⁶

Third, more and more U.S. communities can expect to experience dynamic diversity, which means the rapid arrival in a locality (or part of one) of large numbers of people from other countries. In the Canadian city of Toronto, for example, immigrants comprise more than 44 percent of the population; and in parts of some cities in Europe and elsewhere, most of the residents are newly arrived.

Cities in different countries are pioneering a variety of approaches to inclusive planning and management. Experience in Europe suggests that cities need to become more skillful in developing spatially differentiated approaches to planning and service delivery because the social makeup of different neighborhoods and the perceptions of communities can vary dramatically.

This implies not just the development of high levels of cultural competence in city hall staff but also more sophisticated approaches to planning and budgeting. In this context it may be that participatory planning and budgeting along the lines of the model pioneered in Porto Alegre, Brazil, could repay dividends.

Our fourth theme, developed in our book by John Nalbandian, professor of public administration at the University of Kansas, concerns the interplay between the forces of administrative modernization and civic engagement.⁷ Experience in other countries, as well as in the United States, suggests that successful local government management needs to bridge the managerial requirements of effective service delivery and the civic requirements of promoting democratic vitality.

It is a mistake to believe that managers should focus on the process of providing first-class, responsive services and should leave the democratic engagement task to the elected politicians. On the contrary, some of the most innovative communities in the world blend managerial and political innovation in ways that can boost civic pride and stir high levels of community participation. Several Scandinavian cities, notably Malmö, Sweden, are the most eco-friendly cities in Europe and meet this test.

As U.S. elected officials come to recognize that many of the most important challenges they now face—among them climate change, childhood obesity, community safety, economic innovation in the face of a recession—require behavioral changes in community, the more important civic engagement will become.

Fifth, there is enormous scope for cross-national policy exchange in relation to urban problem solving. Despite the existence of powerful global forces driving sameness and homogenization, it is clear that communities in different places are responding in different ways to current challenges. Individual communities can learn from each other.

This is not to advocate a global search for best practice because globally there is no such thing. Rather, it is to suggest that we can develop much more sophisticated approaches to cross-national lesson drawing. Universities can play a crucial role not just in evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of alternative approaches but also in helping stakeholders identify relevant practices—that is, urban innovations that are tuned successfully to local culture and context.

The conversation among public managers about U.S. local government futures would benefit from being much more international, and it should bring together both practitioners and academics. U.S. local government has much to contribute to local democratic practice in other countries, and ICMA International provides many splendid examples.⁸ Global changes suggest that all communities—in the United States as well as abroad—can now benefit from cross-national exchange.

¹R. Hambleton and J. S. Gross, eds. Governing Cities in a Global Era: Urban Innovation, Competition and Democratic Reform (New York: Palgrave, 2007).

²J. C. T. Hernandez, J. C. Brown, and C. C. Tien, “Serving Diverse Communities—Best Practices,” Public Management, June 2007, pp. 12–17; A. D. Benavides and J. C. T. Hernandez, “Serving Diverse Communities—Cultural Competency,” Public Management, July 2007, pp. 14–18.

³T. Tucker, “Does Age Matter? Local Governments in the Post–Baby Boom Era,” Public Management, May 2007, pp. 18–22.

⁴R. Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class (New York: Basic Books, 2002).

⁵T. Friedman, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2005).

⁶In early 2008, the UK Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) for local government commissioned Robin Hambleton to write a series of case studies to stimulate city-to-city cross-national lesson drawing. The series, titled International Insights, is available for free download from www.idea.gov.uk/international.

⁷J. Nalbandian, “Professionals and the Conflicting Forces of Administrative Modernization and Civic Engagement,” in Governing Cities in a Global Era.

⁸Since 1989, ICMA International has encouraged experienced local government practitioners to work on local democracy capacity-building initiatives in countries other than their home countries. More information: www.icma.org/international.

—Robin Hambleton is professor of city leadership, University of the West of England, Bristol, England, and also is director of Urban Answers (www.urbananswers.co.uk). Jill Simone Gross is associate professor of political science and director of the graduate program in urban affairs, department of urban affairs and planning, Hunter College of the City University of New York in New York, New York (jill.s.gross@hunter.cuny.edu).

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