Institutions and Metropolitan Governance: An Initial Approximation to the Case of Mexico

Abstract

According to the “metropolitan argument,” political-administrative fragmentation creates an incentive structure that encourages both elected and designated officials not to cooperate or coordinate with authorities from other jurisdictions. In Mexico, certain municipalities have responded to this problem by forming certain regional or inter-municipal decision-making structures. The federal government and the governments of certain states have promoted certain solutions to this problem. The institutional arrangements and organizations that have created these efforts are extremely diverse, difficult to classify and have scarcely been explored. This document mentions some of these efforts and highlights four dimensions in order to contribute to their classification and study. These dimensions seek to contribute to identifying key aspects of these structures and institutions that facilitate the development of a research agenda that systematically studies their emergence, evolution and results.