Who Ran the Cities? (Historical Urban Studies)

The question of who actually ran cities in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries has been increasingly debated by urban historians in recent years. As well as trying to understand the distribution of political power, and the rise of broad political participation; the question of how and whether the elite retained influence in the municipal government has attracted much scholarly attention. This volume provides a detailed examination of the relationship between elite and "power" in cities; bringing together the economic, social and cultural history of elite and the political history of power resources and decision-making. By looking at specific case studies through the lens of these issues, this volume challenges common perceptions of a monolithic elite and provides a more sophisticated view of urban power as an interplay between various economic, social, political and cultural elite groups. To contribute to this complex account of cities, elite, and power, the study brings together different methodological approaches to studying European, as well as American cities and the wider world.