Elements of Urban Management (Electronic book text)

This paper summarizes the findings of a research program on the institutional framework of urban management. Urban management is concerned with the policies, plans, programs, and practices that seek to ensure that population growth is matched by access to basic infrastructure, shelter, and employment. While such access will depend as much, if not more, on private initiatives and enterprises, these are critically affected by public sector policies and functions that only government can perform. The paper focuses on selected elements of urban management arrangements and on their impact on the effectiveness of urban government in managing urban growth. Characteristics examined are the structures of urban government agencies, the division of tasks between them, their staffing and resource bases, their internal organization and management processes, their relations with central government, and their interaction with private and community organizations. It discusses how differences in these characteristics contribu