Economic Development and Governance in Small Town America: Paths to Growth - Hardcover

Bliss, Daniel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0815393717 ISBN 13: 9780815393719

Publisher: Routledge, 2018

Synopsis

Who governs? And why? How do they govern? These remain vital questions in the politics of our small cities and towns. In this new book, author Daniel Bliss takes issue with those who believe that small towns and cities are fatally vulnerable to the pressures of a global economy. Based on in-depth analyses of small town America, this book demonstrates how political agency can address and solve real problems affecting US towns, including capital flight, industrial closures, and job losses. Bliss illustrates how small localities exercise choices – such as nurturing local businesses and developing infrastructure rather than engaging in a "race to the bottom," heavily mortgaging tax revenues to attract large box retailers and small box call centers while passively watching more productive firms and better-paying jobs slip away.

Taking careful account of comparative literature as well as variations in city governments, their planning agencies, and their relations with state authorities, this book explores the ways in which local politicians and public planning bodies can mobilize local constituencies to weather global challenges and common structural problems such as unfavorable demographics, skill shortages and out-migration. Economic Development and Governance in Small Town America holds out the promise of meaningful democratic change even in unfavorable political and economic circumstances.

About this title

About the Author

Daniel Bliss is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Illinois Institute of Technology, USA.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0815393717
• ISBN 13: 9780815393719
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 232