The Korea Local Administration Review

This research considers regionalism over efficiency and effectiveness fordelivering of public goods and services in U.S. metropolitan areas. There areconflicts between localism and regionalism for delivering of public goods andservices in U.S. metropolitan areas because the regions are composed of manycompetitive and overlapping local governments. Even though public choicetheorists argue that the local government competition of U.S. metropolitan areasbrings markets efficiency to public service delivery, the metropolitan regionsare under considerable pressure to integrate delivery of public goods andservices with efficiency and interregional equity. Regionalists argue that thehighly political fragmentation of U.S. metropolitan regions makes equitable andefficient delivery of public goods and services difficult because economiccompetitiveness is undermined by local fiscal inequality (Frug, 1998; Warner &Hefetz, 2002). Therefore, this study explores the problem of politicalfragmentation of U.S. metropolitan areas, regionalism, and the case of Chicagoregional governance for enhancing delivery of public goods and services oneffectiveness and efficiency. These findings have encouraged additional researchthat helps clarify and understand the importance of regional governance forcooperating or coordinating the local governments with the highly politicalfragmentation of U.S. metropolitan areas.