| Summary: | Several approaches that underlie urban politics are discussed in the paper. They include neo-liberalism, political economy discourse, elitist/pluralist debates, and postmodernism. The neoliberal approach focuses on the limited role of the state and individual responsibility. The legal framework protects both the rights and responsibilities of individuals and regulates the operation of the market. It is the market that fosters individual choices and provides goods and services by virtue of the processes which are flexible, efficient and transparent.
The political economy approaches (regulation theory, public choice theory, neo-Marxism) explain urban politics via the analysis of national and international economic processes and changes in contemporary capitalism. Changes in national and international economies determine what solutions are possible. The discourse has been influenced by the debate on globalization of capital and labour markets.
Modern elitism and neopluralism are represented by theories of "growth machines" and "urban regimes". The former focuses on bargaining alliances between political and business leaders in order to manage the urban system and to promote its growth. The latter develops neopluralist explanations of power within local communities with an emphasis on the fragmented nature of the government where local authorities lack comprehensive governing powers.
Postmodernism views the city as the site of the crisis of late capitalism which leads to segregation of neighbourhoods onto prosperous areas and ghettoes. In contrast to the modern city, the postmodern city is not defined by its industrial base; rather, it is determined by its consumerist environment of malls and museums, characterized by revivalist architecture. At the same time, the suburban shopping mall and a motorway network make nonsense of the idea of the city as a unique and well-defined space.
These and other approaches encompass a wide spectrum of possibilities in the study of urban and regional politics in relation to the Russian context. In the recent two decades, several studies of the power of urban and regional communities (A. Chirikova, N. Lapina, V. Gel'man, D. Seltser, D. Tev) show that it can contribute for a better understanding of the Russian local politics and government.
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