Urban Regimes and Local Governance in Britain and France

Rather than weakening regime theory, comparative analysis illuminates its central theoretical insights. The cases of Leeds (United Kingdom) and Lille (France) show cities in contrasting geographical, cultural, and institutional contexts developing regime like local polities through business participation in a wide range of public-sector decisions. The five special noninstitutional factors promoting regimes are local business ownership, business integration, large metropolitan context, and economic advantage or disadvantage. The distinctiveness of these cities in their countries is an indication of the degree of policy learning and capacity generation that has taken place.