How should a world characterised by increasingly complex interdependence be governed? If most of the major challenges we face have no respect for the artificial borders marking out nation states, how can we identify and deliver effective solutions?
The answer Benjamin Barber offered in his stimulating presentation at the Bristol Festival of Ideas on Monday night is that we need to look to cities. More specifically, we need to look to mayors. His case is in part rooted in the fact of an increasingly urban future. But it is also based upon the characteristics he identifies as distinctive to mayoral governance. This is an argument developed at greater length in his new book If mayors ruled the world: Dysfunctional nations, rising cities (Yale University Press).
Barber starts from the premise that we can no longer look to the nation state to find solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems.
[You can read the rest of this post on the PolicyBristol Hub]
Note:
This posts also appears at Democratic Audit blog (13/11/13)
Categories: Politics
The Eurocities project has produced interesting inputs on migration and integration policies, from Mayors and Deputy Mayors.
http://www.eurocities.eu/eurocities/issues/migration-integration-issue