Pro-Growth Governance

Of the four governance models covered in this book, pro-growth governance is probably the easiest and least challenging to understand. The simplicity of the model is to some extent the genius of it; economic growth is something which everyone in the community benefits from, directly or indirectly, hence there is (or should be) very little opposition towards a governance arrangement to that purpose. At the same time, it is the governance model which has the biggest potential for entailing a loss of democracy in the city. That is because pro-growth governance tends to bring the political elite close to the downtown elite, an arrangement that jeopardizes transparency and accountability and raises political concerns for those constituencies that are not part of the pro-growth coalition. In other words: pro-growth governance could bring prosperity to the city and its dwellers but that growth would come at a price. But, again, economic development is something which everyone benefits from.