Governance Relations in Small Nations: Competition vs. Cooperation and the Triple Role of Big Cities

• Main Authors: Beeri, Itai, Skjöld Magnússon, Magnús Árni
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Institute for Local Self-Government Maribor (Slovenia) 2019
• Subjects: scipo; envir; Reykjavík; Iceland
• Online Access: http://pub.lex-localis.info/index.php/LexLocalis/article/view/1110

This article examines and compares governance relations of big cities in relatively small nation states in Reykjavík, Iceland, and Tel Aviv, Israel. The international literature has extensively explored governance at the municipal and national levels. We aim to enlarge this discussion by examining the unique role, experience and dynamics of large, dominant cities vis-à-vis other governance entities in the era of local governance. Using a grounded theory approach we suggest the frameworks of 'building strong nations', new localism, and 'cooperation versus collaboration' to enlighten nation-big city, state-big city and big city-city governance relations, respectively. We employed a qualitative design, using textual analysis and in-depth interviews with both state and local actors in the two countries. The results show that in both countries examined, dominant cities are required to fill a unique triple role: as leading cities in their metropolitan areas, in their respective states, and in their respective nations. Yet the two cases also differ in important ways. While Reykjavík is the head of a well-functioning community of co-producers, Tel Aviv is closer to a local jungle, where competition and competing interests prevent effective cooperation. Implications of the findings are discussed in the era of local governance. Ta članek proučuje in primerja odnose v upravljanju v velikih mestih v relativno majhnih nacionalnih državah, in sicer v Reykjaviku na Islandiji in Tel Avivu v Izraelu. V mednarodni literaturi je upravljanje na občinski in državni ravni široko raziskano. To razpravo želimo razširiti s proučevanjem edinstvene vloge, izkušenj in dinamike velikih, dominantnih mest v primerjavi z drugimi subjekti upravljanja v dobi lokalnih ravni upravljanja. Z utemeljenim teoretičnim pristopom predlagamo okvire »oblikovanja močnih narodov«, novega lokalizma in »tekmovanje proti sodelovanju«, da pojasnimo odnose v upravljanju narod–veliko mesto, država–veliko mesto in veliko mesto–mesto. V obeh državah smo uporabili ...