Contemporary Issuesin the Government Ano Aoministration of Latin American Megacities

Thispaper is the first to systematical/y analyze and compare the structures of city governance and administration for seven maior cities in LatinAmerica, four of which are megacities (population of over 10millionJ, and three others are large national capitais. U.S.and U. K.models of city administration are reviewed as baseline models against which differences in LatinAmerican may be explored. Structures of Government in LatinAmerica show several important features and trenas: 1) the lack of metropolitan (cross;urisdictional) authority; 2) the existence of strong mayors and weak councils"; 3) high leveis of partisanship; 4) overlapping rather than interlocking bureaucracies; 5) pressures towards the privatization of city services. but continuing tension over the desirability of public versus private control; 6)greater fiscal responsibility and autonomy; and 7), a continuing marginalization of public participation in megacity governance./n spite of these features, many cities throughout the region (regardless of whether they are megacity size or national capitais), are actively intensifying their efforts to develop more effedive, accountable and democratic governance structures. A preliminary version of this paper was first presented at a meeting on "Latin American Megacities" organized by United Nations University in Mexico City in November 1993.