Political economy of city sizes and formation

There are two paradigms of city formation and size-the competitive model of large-scale land developers operating in national land markets and the sel f-organization model of agglomeration. This paper examines the effects of l ocal politics, urban classes, and restrictions in national land markets on city size and formation. It starts by introducing local politics into the t wo paradigms. Then it turns to a growth situation, where land developers in itiate new settlements, but existing cities are either self-organized or go verned locally. The paper also examines the politics of local no-growth mov ements and of governance of specially favored mega-cities. (C) 2000 Academi c Press.