Apologies for the cross-listing

The Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Tokyo will host two talks by Professor Alison Post (UC Berkeley) on December 10 and 11 as part of the UTokyo-UC Berkeley Strategic Partnership program.

The talks will focus on the comparative urban politics/political economy of developing countries and are open to the public by registration at the following link.
https://forms.gle/aErMYLaC2fFgEsTm9

For further information, please contact: todaiberkeley@iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp

THE SPEAKER

Alison E. Post is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Global Metropolitan Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She also serves as the Co-Director of the Global Metropolitan Studies Program at Berkeley. Her research lies at the intersection of comparative urban politics and comparative political economy, focusing on Latin America and the developing world more broadly. It examines the political and institutional factors affecting vital urban services. Published and ongoing research focuses on the politics of regulation and business-government relations, decentralization, welfare state politics, and the effects of increasing government transparency.
https://polisci.berkeley.edu/people/person/alison-post

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LECTURE 1
Title: "City Size and Public Service Access: Evidence from Brazil, India, and Indonesia"

Date: December 10, 2019 (Tuesday) 18:00-19:30 (17:30 Open)

Venue: Room 549, Akamon General Research Building, Hongo Campus, University of Tokyo

Abstract: According to U.N. projections, the bulk of population growth over the next two decades will occur in small and medium-sized cities in low and middle-income countries. To understand the implications of rapid urbanization in the Global South, it is therefore crucial to examine how city size affects public goods provision. The fiscal federalism and decentralization literatures suggest that larger cities often deliver better public goods more effectively because of scale economies. Yet small cities exhibit higher rates of access to basic health and education services in Brazil, India, and Indonesia according to data analysis we present here. Why is this the case?
Building on modernization theory and models from urban economics, we argue that citizens in smaller cities prioritize investments in basic health and education facilities because there are few low-cost substitutes for government offerings, and because they face few characteristically "urban" problems, such as congestion and insecurity. Residents of larger cities, in contrast, prioritize investment in a wider set of policy areas because they experience more negative externalities from urban growth and can turn to a larger supply of non-state providers of basic social services. Moreover, public officials in smaller cities find it easier to earn political returns for investments in "divisible" infrastructure for service delivery, such as schools and clinics, because they can coordinate lobbying and credit-claiming more effectively than politicians in larger cities.
We illustrate the mechanisms underlying these differences across policy areas through cross-sectional data analysis and paired comparison of representative cities of different sizes in Brazil, and with shadow cases from Indonesia. Our analysis underscores how non-state service provision affects the governmental provision of local public goods.

URL: https://utokyo.ucberkeley.jp/en/news_and_events/lecture_Post2_en


LECTURE 2
Title; "Cities and Politics in the Developing World: Recent Achievements and Avenues for Future Research"

Date: December 11, 2019 (Wednesday) 15:00-16:30 (14:30 Open)

Venue: Room 549, Akamon General Research Building, Hongo Campus, University of Tokyo

Abstract: The last 20 years have witnessed an impressive outpouring of political science research examining urban politics in the developing world, building on a broader wave of research on subnational politics. This work advances our understanding of phenomena such as clientelism, law and order, and local public goods provision. This research wave has also spurred methodological innovations, particularly in the use of spatial data. Scholarship could be strengthened, however, through more careful attention to how the urban setting of this research affects the politics examined.
This lecture proposes two distinct ways in which urban politics can be conceptualized: politics taking place in urban agglomerations, characterized by large, diverse populations settled at high densities; or politics taking place within the boundaries of city jurisdictions, possessing legal powers and responsibilities distinct from those at other tiers of government or in rural areas. Adopting either of these conceptualizations illuminates new avenues for empirical work, theoretical innovation, and improved measurement. In this lecture, I will also shows that recent scholarship has neglected important, and fundamentally political, topics such as urban political economy, land markets, and environmental harms. Engaging with these areas would allow political scientists to revisit classic questions regarding the institutional influences on economic growth, the politics of redistribution, and the determinants of collective action.

URL:https://utokyo.ucberkeley.jp/en/news_and_events/lecture_Post4_en

For more information, please contact: todaiberkeley@iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp

東大－バークレー戦略的パートナーシップ
UTokyo-Berkeley Strategic Partnership
http://utokyo.ucberkeley.jp/