Voluntary Regional Councils and the New Regionalism

Abstract

This article compares the opposite fates of two voluntary regional councils in similar substate regions of Michigan and evaluates their effectiveness as planning mechanisms of the new regionalism. Organizational development strategies and consensus building drove the survival and partial success of one council but reduced its policy effectiveness. A climate of mistrust emanating from virulent localism and idiosyncratic events undercut the other council’s organizational capacity and policy effectiveness and led to its demise. Implications of these cases as “weak” examples of new regionalism are discussed.