Defining Regionalism and Approaches to Regionalism

This chapter deals specifically with identifying and exploring the primary ways in which local governments are engaging in regional activities. The primary explanation for the paradox results moving from thinking about a paradigm centered on government to one centered on governing or governance. Governing is the act of public decision-making and is no longer the exclusive domain of governments. Developing democratic decision-making rules has proved to be the most difficult challenge facing the organizations. The most frequently used innovation in decision-making rules is the development of weighted voting structures that reflect the distribution of population and market value within a metropolitan area. In the process of a transition, the urban counties serve to the regionalizing of metropolitan America. The history of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) captures the emergence of the urban county.