Institutional capacity and metropolitan governance: the Greater Toronto Area

Attempts to bring the administrative structures and functions of our major agglomerations into line with the new socio-economic and political realities have raised major questions concerning the governance of metropolitan regions. The ability of such areas to anticipate, respond to, and cope with the tensions induced by major urban change raise serious challenges to governmental institutions at all levels in their search for increased competitiveness and administrative efficiency, social equity and accountability, and the expression of political power. Indeed, the emergence of new institutional arenas and networks within city regions are clearly linked to wider shifts in governance, where institutional capital and diversity is central to improvements to capacity bidding strategies. Toronto's recent experience of attempting to simultaneously reorganise the structures and responsibilities of metropolitan government, the delivery of public services and the management of urban form, is thus of considerable interest, since it has long been perceived as a "model of metropolitan governance". (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.