Greater Manchester encompasses a complex urban region formed by the coalescence and overlapping growth of several cities, and its local government has been reorganized twice within the last 20 years in order to meet the area's governmental needs. This paper examines the reorganization of Greater Manchester in terms of changing function-area relationships and changing patterns of administrative space, and considers the implications of changes in the economic and political environment of urban government. While the first reorganization created a local government structure more closely corresponding to the complex urban pattern, the second weakened this structure by eliminating area-wide government and increasing fragmentation. At the same time, economic changes are requiring a greater economic role and scale enlargement for city governments, but political changes have reduced and marginalized local governments in urban governance.
