The Age of the Mayor

In the last year, the Harvard Political Review has examined a number of pressing political topics, focusing its first three issues on the subjects of education, civilian-military relations, and climate change. In each of these issues, our writers assessed the state of our political world, the problems that are confronting it, and the actors who are trying to make it better. As often as not, their conclusions were tinged with frustration or disappointment: While some leaders are making progress to overcome challenges like global warming, permanent solutions remain mostly out of reach.

In this issue, however, HPR presents a set of articles that may give readers some reason for optimism. In several of these pieces, our writers revisit subjects they covered in earlier issues – including education, public safety, and the environment – and examine them from the vantage point of local governments. This time, a few more encouraging conclusions emerge. Re-asking questions like, “Can anyone fix education?”; “Can anyone keep us safe?”; and “Can anyone clean up the environment?”; our writers answer: Perhaps mayors can.

At first, this might seem like a dubious suggestion. In a time when Americans’ eyes seem increasingly fixed on national politics and presidential campaign coverage dominates the airwaves, the idea that policy solutions might emerge from this country’s cities is not an obvious one. When countless column inches are dedicated to contrasting Barack Obama’s security plan with Hillary Clinton’s, and comparing hers to Mitt Romney’s, it seems almost silly to suggest that a municipal official might have beaten them all to the punch.

And yet, looking at mayors across the country, it becomes clear that there is nothing remotely silly about this suggestion. From Indianapolis, where outgoing Mayor Bart Peterson has cut new ground with charter schools, to New York City, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg has built the NYPD into an international intelligence-gathering force, mayors are changing the face of American government. Where the federal government is failing to offer solutions, citizens and their closest elected representatives are stepping in to do the job instead. Rudy Giuliani has been dubbed “America’s Mayor,” but our cities’ most important innovations have not risen from any one man’s efforts. Instead, they have grown from the minds of hundreds of local leaders. President Bush’s father might have called them a thousand points of light.

Not long ago, HPR’s staff sat down with Bill Purcell, the former mayor of Nashville, Tenn., to talk about his experience leading a city. Purcell explained that the essential functions of a city government are to provide education, ensure public safety, and improve the quality of life of its citizens. As Purcell’s own tenure shows, though, a talented mayor can do even more than that. His work can set the model for other cities, and for endeavors of an even larger scale. Bill Purcell’s name won’t be on the presidential ballot next year, but if voters choose a candidate who shares the energy, imagination, and character of mayors like him, the next inauguration could bring morning to America.
-- ALEXANDER BURNS ]]>