Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Urban policy
length state agencies, which distance major projects from local accountability. The
influence of international examples such as the redevelopment of Baltimore’s Inner
Harbor in the USA and London’s Docklands in the UK are evident in Australia.
In Sydney, the redevelopment of Darling Harbour was overseen by a development
authority established in 1984, and the current central city waterfront redevelopment
is being led by a New South Wales (NSW) state agency, the Barangaroo Delivery
Authority, created in 2009.
Theories of urban policy
The ongoing tension between equity and efficiency goals is fundamental to debates
about urban politics and policy. Two broad theoretical positions aid understanding.
The first focuses on the role of cities in processes of social reproduction, and the
second emphasises cities’ role in processes of production or in realising profits from
property development.
Neo-Marxist debates of the 1970s stressed the role of cities in social reproduction
and collective consumption, or the delivery of services and goods – including those
which are or can be collectively consumed, such as transport, education, health care
andhousing–bythestatetosupportthereproductionoflabourpower.Politicsstems
from the struggle between those propagating profit-seeking and those favouring
welfare via state support for collective good provision. For Manuel Castells, 10 the lives
of many poor people in urban society are shaped by crises of collective consumption,
referring to the unaffordable nature of many goods and services necessary for their
sustenance. Collectively consumed goods and services, such as public transport and
policing, which involve the majority of households and especially wealthier groups
able to mobilise and be heard, tend to generate more public awareness. In contrast,
those allocated on the basis of need, such as public housing, and reliant on poorer
groups’ and their advocates’ ability to mobilise and be heard, tend to figure lower on
the political agenda. 11
A second set of theories originating in the USA argues that the focus of urban
politics is economic growth and the realisation of profit through land and property
development. Growth coalition theory 12 sees policy as part of the exercise of elite
power around economic growth objectives, with the city as ‘growth machine’. Urban
regime theory 13 refines this, arguing that power is fragmented and that regimes
arise between local governments and private actors that need to combine power
and resources to be able to devise and enact a policy agenda. These theories, which
identify urban policy as a mechanism that seeks to promote economic growth and
10 Castells 1978.
11 Cochrane 2007.
12 Logan and Molotch 1987.
13 Stone 1989.
713