Cities: who decides?

• Jane-Frances Kelly
• Grattan Institute

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18 October 2010Grattan Institute's second Cities program investigates decision making in eight of the world’s most successful cities, and asks what governance arrangements accompanied their broad-based improvement.

Every city has a different story, but among these differences a number of common themes emerged. These included the importance of public engagement, consistent strategic direction, cross-sectoral collaboration, and regional cooperation.

The report’s findings have a number of implications for Australian cities, but two stand out. First, residents must be involved in decisions. The cities that made, and implemented, tough choices, had early and deep public engagement – an order of magnitude different from what often happens in Australia. Second, changing structures does not, in itself, result in success. No one particular type of governance structure was associated the cities’ improvement. Changing structures has the danger of being a distraction.