Political Arrangements: Power and the City

Randall White, a political scientist, is also a Toronto-based economic
consultant and author of Voice of Region: On the Long Journey to Senate
Reform in Canada.

In his introduction, Henri Lustiger-Thaler observes, “Regrettably, in
the failed constitutional talks of 1992, serious reflection and debate
on the role of local government was virtually negligible. . . . This
path-breaking collection of essays addresses a gap in current thinking
about the potential role cities and municipalities might play in
redesigning and radically transforming the structures of government in
Canada.” The actual book, which has its origins in papers given at the
1992 Learned Societies gathering in Prince Edward Island, does not
exactly live up to this billing, but it does include some interesting
essays on Canadian urban affairs (from the particular radical political
slant long identified with Black Rose Books), and its link with the
recent constitutional debate is sometimes provocative.

There is a very good piece entitled “The Failure of Urban Government
in Winnipeg,” by Barton Reid and the late Kent Gerecke. The 11 other
contributors include Caroline Andrew (“The Feminist City”) and
Warren Magnusson (“Rediscovering the Local as a Site for Global
Politics”). Ron George offers some reflections on what aboriginal
self-government might mean in urban areas. Engin Isin presents useful
historical material on municipal institutions in the pre-Confederation
era. The book begins with a reprint of a Jane Jacobs article that
outlines her more recent thoughts on cities and the wealth of nations.

Oddly enough, the subtitle—“Power and the City”—draws attention
to what some might see as a key weakness of the collection. There is
virtually no convincing discussion about the kinds of practical
political and economic power that would have to be mobilized to breathe
real life into the radically transforming visions of at least many among
the various authors. Yet this is a congenital weakness in virtually all
current radical thought, and the struggle nonetheless goes on. Radical
and other urban specialists, along with ordinary readers who may be
seeking an update of such Black Rose Books of the early 1970s as
Participatory Democracy for Canada, should still find Political
Arrangements an intriguing volume to consult.