Policy Coordination in Metropolitan Areas

Abstract

The perennial concern for coordinating policy in metropolitan areas is receiving re newed attention in federal program evaluation and reorganization proposals. Recent urban fiscal problems and the reformulation of federal urban policy are raising new questions about the need for program coordination among local governments. Yet few attempts to impose coordination requirements in the past have been successful. Public administration guidelines have generally overlooked the political factors that influence interaction among federal agencies and local units of government. Within metropolitan areas intergovernmental cooperation is conditioned by a large number of ecological factors-spatial, organizational, political, economic, and psychological -that create opportunities for and constraints on interjurisdictional coordination and that must be understood in designing coordinative arrangements. The major ecological variables influencing political interaction within metropolitan areas are reviewed and a framework is suggested for assessing the potential for policy coordi nation at the metropolitan level.