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Filling in the resource gap of urban regime analysis: presenting two models of policy resource exchange from the study of Swiss cities
LAMBELET, Sébastien
LAMBELET, Sébastien. Filling in the resource gap of urban regime analysis: presenting two models of policy resource exchange from the study of Swiss cities. In: Seminar of the Open Space Research Centre, Open University, Milton Keynes (United-Kingdom), 17th February 2016, 2016, p. 15p.
Available at:
http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:149188
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Filling in the resource gap of urban regime analysis
Presenting two models of policy resource exchange from the study of Swiss cities
Sébastien Lambelet
Institute for Environmental Governance and Territorial Development
Department of Political Science and International Relations University of Geneva (Switzerland)
Visiting scholar at the Open Space Research Centre in 2015-2016 OS Seminar
17th February 2016
The ressource gap of URA
• Urban regime = "an informal yet relatively stable group with access to institutional resources that enable it to have a sustained role in
making governing decisions" (Stone 1989:4)
• BUT which resources need to be exchanged? (see Stone 2005:330)
• Theoretical studies insist on resource exchanges (Stoker,
Mosserberger, 1994; Stoker, 1995; Mossberger, Stoker 2001).
• But empirical ones are not systematic on this point:
• “Resources” as contextual variables (Savitch, Kantor, 2002).
• Identify regimes without identifying resources exchanges (John, Cole 1998;
DiGaetano, Lawless, 1999; Dormois, 2006; Devecchi, 2010).
Theoretical/empirical discrepancy within URA studies.
Filling in the gap
Knoepfel, Peter, Larrue, Corinne, Varone, Frédéric and Michael, Hill.
2007. Public Policy Analysis. The Policy Press. Bristol.
In common with URA:
• Grounded from empirics
• Actors-centered but bounded rationality + constrained by institutional framework
• Neo-pluralist assumption: «ideas + interests matter BUT resources decide»
• “Policy resources can be mobilized by actors to influence the content and development of a public policy in a way asserting their values and interests”. (Knoepfel et al., 2007:17&82).
Included in the definition of an urban regime
= land
Expertise
Typology of policy resources (Knoepfel et al., 2007:65)
= democratic support
Recent evolution of URA
• 4 core criteria to define an urban regime (see Stone, 1989, 2005;
Mossberger, Stoker, 2001):
1. a governing coalition including public and private actors.
2. a common agenda targeting the interests of this coalition.
3. the capacity to mobilize resources to sustain this agenda.
4. a scheme of long-term cooperation leading to self-confidence among involved actors.
Iron law of URA
See Stone 2015; Stone, Stoker 2015
Methods
• Business actors less involved at the local level (Hanson et al. 2010; Stone 2015) less steady forms of public-private cooperation
• Projects as a new tool for public policy (Pinson, 2004; 2009)
Projects as a proxy for urban governance
Focus on urban projects
• Process-tracing
• Actor-Process-Event-Scheme (APES)
• Face to face interviews
City Project’s
name Goals
Planning starting
year
Zurich Europaallee
New CBD next to the central railway station.
6'000 workplaces, 300 housings, a high- school, a hostel and a senior’s residence between 2012 and 2020.
2003
Bern Wankdorf- City
New business district in the north-east of the city. 5’000 workplaces by 2015. A hostel, 150 housings and thousands of additional workplaces by 2018.
1999
Zurich Europaallee- context
1970s – 1990s: Territorial compromise in ZH
Previous project (HB-Südwest-Eurogate) : 40 years and 80 millions CHF in an unfruitful planning
New ideology within the Socialist Party
New real estate strategy of the Swiss Federal Railways
(semi-privatization in 1999)
Europaallee - The emergence of a regime
Swiss Federal Railways – Municipality of Zurich
• 2003: Parrallel architectural studies
• 2004-2005: Private land use plan
• 2006: Unanimity of the City Council
• 2006-2007: Popular ballot + judicial appeals
• 2009: Start of construction
In 6 years: the coaliton was able to reconstruct a new CBD
Since then cooperation continue in other locations
Bern Wankdorf - Context
• Bern = the Swiss capital
• Swiss Federal Railways + Swiss Post = 10% labor force of the city
• Wankdorf as a pole for economic development
• Early 2000s:
• City still in decline
• New suburban railway station
• New policy instrument to regulate traffic flows
Bern: Wankdorf-City
Bern – Wankdorf-City
• Municipality of Bern owns parcels of land near the new station
• Elaboration of a land use plan double role of the Municipality
• Several votes on the project
• Leasehold contracts with Swiss Federal Railways + Losinger Marazzi
Proactive attitude of the Municipality
Cooperation continues with both actors on other projects
“PRIVATE-public” model “PUBLIC-private” model Exchanges of policy resources
Owned by the local government Democratic support
Land, law, democratic support and planning expertise.
Jointly mobilized Law and planning expertise Money Owned by the private partner Land, money and
construction expertise Construction expertise
Most influential actor Private actor Public actor
Overcoming opposition Ex-post Ex-ante
Case study Europaallee in Zurich Wankdorf-City in Bern
