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In his book on the Italian Renaissance J.H. Plumb writes:
By 1400 Venice had proved herself invincible; indeed, she had become the center
of a seaborne empire…Crete and many Aegean islands belonged to her
absolutely; trading communities, enjoying extraterritorial privileges, had been
established in Constantinople, Acre, Tyre, Sidon, Alexandria. Venetian merchants
were as familiar with the Black Sea as the Adriatic; her ambassadors were to
bound in Isfahan and in Cairo; her travelers, simulated by the stories of Marco
Polo, reached Sumartra and Ceylon long before eVasco da Gama rounded the
Cape. (Plumb, 102)

In a fascinating article in the NY Times magazine Nicholas Kristof wrote:

Between 1405 and 1433, Zheng He lend seven major expeditions, commanding
the largest armanda the world would see for the next five centuries. Not until
World War I did the West amount anything comparable. Zheng He’s fleet included
28,000 sailors on 300 ships, the longest of which were 400 feet. By comparison,
Columbus in 1492 had 90 sailors on three ships, the biggest of which was 85 feet
long. Zheng He's ships also had advanced design elements that would not be
introduced in Europe for another 350 years, including balanced rudders and
watertight bulwark compartments….

China had been wealthier, more advanced and more cosmopolitan than any
place in Europe for several thousand years. Hangzhou, for example, had a
population in excess of a million during the time it was China’s capital (in the 12th
century), and records suggest that as early as the 7th century, the city of
Guangzhou had 200,000 foreign residents: Arabs, Persians, Malays, Indians,
Africans and Turks. By contrast, the largest city in Europe in 1400 was probably
Paris, with a total population of slightly more than 100,000.(Kristof)

Finally, Jeffrey Frankel notes:

The globalization that took place in the nineteenth century was at least as
impressive as the current episode…The most revolutionary breakthroughs in
transportation and communication had already happened by 1900-for example, the
railroad, steamship, telegraph and refrigeration. Freight rates had fallen sharply
throughout the century. An environment of political stability was provided by Pax
Britannica, and an environment of monetary stability was provided by the gold
standard.(Frankel, 47)

He further comments:

By one basic measure of trade, exports or imports of merchandise as a fraction of
total output, it took more than twenty-five years after the end of World War II before
the United States around 1970 reached the same level of globalization that it had
experienced on the eve of World War I. (Frankel, 48)

These quotes are not intended to debunk the current fascination with
globalization and large cities as centerpieces of the new world economy. Rather,
I simply wish to begin this essay on urban public administration with a sense of
historical perspective. Neil Pierce, an American journalist who has written
extensively on American cities, has suggested that the central political-
geographic institution of the future is the city-state.(Pierce)

Major cities have always been at the center of world trade. Venice was a city-
states and world trading center several centuries ago. There is no reason to
think this will change in the 21st century. At the beginning of the 20th century New
York, Chicago and Philadelphia were on a list of the ten largest cities in the
world. A century later only London, New York and Tokyo are still on the list.
London is the only city that has been on the list since 1500.(Kunzmann, 38)

For centuries there has been world commerce, although even the 20th century
illustrates that the growth of international trade is not a history of constant
expansion. In America and throughout the world the city dwelling population is
growing as people leave rural areas for the greater economic opportunities
available in cities. The largest cities of the world are much larger and spread
over a wider geographic area than was the case a century or several centuries
ago.

Whether or not Neil Pierce is correct about the coming dominance of city-states, it
is clear that the successful governance of large urban areas is topic worthy of
study and reflection. What I will attempt to do in the following pages is focus on
the governance of large urban areas in the United States. The first section begins
with an overview of the structural characteristics and conceptual models of
American urban government.

The second section explores the challenges faced by public administrators in
21st century American urban regions. There is a presumption here that the
success or failure of an urban area is in a significant way dependent on the
ability of public administrators to meet the challenges of urban governance.