Measuring the Effectiveness of Regional Governing Systems

This book provides an analysis of the different approaches to regional governance utilized by Canada and the United States. As countries continue to urbanize and centralize economic functions and population in metropolitan regions, the traditional governing system is not equipped to handle problems that spill over local government boundaries. Governments have utilized four basic approaches to address the regional governing problem: consolidating governments, adding a regional tier, creating regional special districts, and functional cooperative approaches. A major focus of the book will be an in-depth analysis of the pros and cons of each approach to regional governance§Case studies from Canada and the US will be presented and compared to bring out the differences of the four systems of regional governance. This study will contribute to the literature on the various approaches to regional governance as well as bring together and analyze the most current literature on regional governance. Much of the research on regional governance by American researchers has focused exclusively on American regional governance, while Canadian researchers tend to focus on governance in Canada. This research will be a cross-national comparative study and will provide a more systematic analysis of the different approaches to regional governance. Regional governance is a topical public policy issue making the book of interest to policy-makers in addition to scholars and students in political science, sociology, and urban and regional studies.