Prospects for regional governance - Lessons from the Miami abolition vote

Circumstances surrounding the 1997 city dissolution vote in Miami were idea l for establishing a metropolitan government, based on arguments from the t raditional urban politics literature. Yet it did not happen. How did the is sue make it onto the public agenda but fail to be adopted? The author argue s that changes in metropolitan governance need to be understood as the outc omes of an agenda-setting process and not solely based on the distribution of winners and losers, as suggested by the public-choice/metropolitan refor m literature. The Miami case clearly illustrates the importance of focusing events, a skilled policy entrepreneur, and timing of events as interest fa des and the window of opportunity closes. It also illustrates the power of a policy image to trigger emotional attachments that can mobilize inattenti ve publics.