Organizing government structure and governance functions in metropolitan areas in response to growth and change: A critical overview

Articles and books have recently appeared on a wide variety of regionalism issues. Some writers have attempted to refocus the discussion of the the topic from government to governance, while others have proposed frameworks and models to categorize areas by the extent of their regionalism and explain why some metropolitan areas are more regional than others. Taking into account the government and governance issues and previous efforts at model building, the author proposes another framework to aid in the study of regionalism in metropolitan areas. A regional process is triggered when an urban area experiences growth or change pressures that extend beyond individual political boundaries. Various influences are exerted to rescore equilibrium. The influences promote either independent and autonomous responses, or regionalism and cooperation responses. Many factors determine the strength of the influences, including previous responses and state and federal policies. Responses to the regional issue are a function of the interplay of the various influences and will result in either a more independent and autonomous or a more regional and cooperative governing system. The author applies the framework in the analysis of Pittsburgh's responses to regionalism pressures.