From Urban Ruling to Urban Governance:A Research Review on Urban Politics Science

Urban power structure and urban governance structure are the main research content of Urban Politics Science,and they also compose two major clues which can analyze the paradigm transformation of Urban Politics Science. On the one hand,as far as the field of urban power structure,there are many theories which appeared one after another,including the elitism theory,the pluralism theory,the urban growth machines theory and the urban regime theory. Via investigating these theories,we can discover two different models of power,namely social control model and social production model. On the other hand,as far as the domain of urban governance structure,there are many theories which emerged one by one as well,for example,the traditional regionalism theory,the urban public choice theory and the new regionalism theory. At the same time,this phenomenon indicates the transition of urban governance model from highlighting the government administration to emphasizing on collaborative governance. From 1990's,it turns up a tendency,that these two clues began to integrate,so that the key paradigm of urban politics science transform itself to urban governance. Undoubtedly,taking advantage of these paradigms has some important implications for us to promote urban politics study and enhance the capacity of urban governance in China.