Introduction: Paths to New Regionalism

THIS ISSUE OF State and Local Government Review explores how localities have organized themselves to address social disparities and ecological threats. Government and governance are distinguished as two broad rubrics of local organization. We cover a spectrum of methods used by localities to expand their jurisdiction or reach beyond formal borders, including city-county consolidations, annexations, interlocal agreements, extraterritorial jurisdiction, and multitiered governments. The contributing authors show how localities have adopted and employed these mechanisms, and their experiences are discussed within the context of what has come to be known as New Regionalism. New Regionalism is both a policy agenda and a set of public interventions designed to fulfill that agenda. Its results are sometimes clear-cut, occasionally ambiguous, and include both successes and failures underscored by motives for power and concerns for better management. The problems and occasional crises associated with New Regionalism provide the driving force for new types of public intervention. This linkage between regional problems and local organization gives us a unique view of how local policy can influence a larger arena. Defining New Regionalism