STATE OF THE WORLD'S CITIES 2012/2013 Prosperity

State of the World’s Cities 2012/2013
regulatory frameworks and
strong institutions – form
the ‘hub’ that controls the
‘wheel of urban prosperity’
and give it direction,
pace and momentum
(see Chapter 1.1). Shared
prosperity requires the
predominance of the public
interest as embodied in
public authorities50 to
ensure that none of the five
‘spokes’ gain prevalence to
the detriment of the others.
Abstract values and norms
are institutions because
they guide individual
and collective action. 51
In the cities
FACT of the world
today, the power to be
mobilised against the crisis
emanates from a variety of
stakeholders, not just public
authorities, although these
retain a decisive role.
The crucial
POLICy role of public
authorities is to harness the
various types of societal
powers and potentials
through appropriate urban
power functions.
Box 3.2.2 shows how, in
China and in Europe centuries ago, the State imposed the
prevalence of the public over other interests and needs,
treating them all equitably for the sake of shared prosperity.
The powers and functions that are part of the governance
structure of a city may derive from promulgated city charters,
local government frameworks, or directly from the national
Constitution. The rights and responsibilities granted to
individuals and firms in cities are all dictated by prevailing
legal frameworks. Similarly, the interactions among urban
residents as well as the modalities of production, distribution
and consumption of urban space have always been regulated
by explicit and implicit codes of behaviour and practice. The
transformative potential of any city has, therefore, always
been a function of the enabling scope of its laws, regulations
and institutions. The degree to which such instruments can
be deployed as they are, or consolidated, or even reformed
will determine a city’s degree of prosperity.
In the metaphor of the ‘Prosperity Wheel’, the legal and
institutional framework as a whole acts as the ‘hub’ which
steers the development
of the five dimensions
(‘spokes’) of prosperity,
Laws and the modulating momentum,
FACT associated
relaying its energy to the
institutional set-up
other dimensions, and
have determined the
maintaining the overall
very genesis of the
modern city, both in its balance of the ‘wheel’.
essence as well as its Internal dysfunctions in
functionality.
the legal and institutional
116
framework, or any disconnect between the hub and the
spokes, interferes with the operation of the ‘wheel’ and
makes any existing momentum unsustainable (such as based
on only one of the five dimensions).
THE LEGAL-INSTITUTIONAL BASIS OF THE
20TH-CENTURy CITy
Advances in industrial development, consolidation of the
market economy and the permeating influence of liberal
democracy (both in its origin in the West and the postcolonial
variant in the developing world) have created a
shared legal and regulatory foundation in much of the urban
world. The legal, regulatory and institutional fundamentals
of the contemporary city tend to be identical, differing only
in levels of development, institutional characteristics and
performance ability. Indeed, the legal-institutional basis of
the 20th-century city is fairly uniform; and this explains the
similarities not only in functional modalities but also in the
all-too visible imbalances characterizing the 20th-century
city in its generic sense (i.e., spatial segregation, social
exclusion, a predominance of motorised mobility, high
Karnataka, Bangalore, India: A road sign hangs over the entrance
to ‘Electronics City’, an industrial complex dedicated to the IT
and electronics industries. Located ten miles (16km) outside
Bangalore, the complex has been hugely successful in attracting
foreign investment.
© Chris Stowers/Panos Pictures