The Politics of Local Economic Development: A Review of Selected Recent Literature from the Perspective of the Practitioner

The politics of urban development is a critically important subject for economic development practitioners. Two recent books that present case studies of the politics of urban economic development in a variety of situations and related generalizations by the authors or editors, and a third book, which mainly provides background trend analysis, are reviewed from the perspective of an economic development practitioner. The unitary concept of objective maximization of a city's economic benefit is seen as less useful to understanding the politics of economic development than conflicting views of different interests regarding economic development policies and the governing coalitions that largely determine such policies. Community groups and other nonbusiness interests are seen by the reviewer as influencing resource allocations between economic development and other urban development categories and influencing specific economic development projects that have a neighborhood or other interest group impact. Overall economic development policies and downtown development, however, usually mainly involve city government and business groups. The essay concludes with some thoughts about how nonbusiness interests might be encouraged and assisted to play a larger role in overall economic development policy formulation.