Political Branding in Cities
The Decline of Machine Politics in Bogotá, Naples, and Chicago

This book examines how cities suffering from poor government made a transition to brand politics to break a cycle of inertia.

Eleonora Pasotti (Author)

9781108438612, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 October 2017

303 pages, 68 b/w illus. 3 tables
23 x 15.3 x 2 cm, 0.47 kg

'There is no doubt that this book constitutes a major contribution to the understanding of the recent evolution of urban governance.' International Journal of Urban and Regional Research

Branding is ubiquitous, yet its workings in politics are still untheorized. Drawing on the experiences of three cities on three continents, Eleonora Pasotti fills the gap by showing how cities suffering for decades from poor government, entrenched patronage, lack of development, and social conflict made a transition to a new form of governance: brand politics. Facilitated by the joint presence of direct elections, low party discipline, and high rates of municipal fiscal self-reliance, brand politics breaks a vicious cycle of skepticism and inertia, and opens the window for a broad set of reforms. The theory of brand politics shows mayors emulating marketing mavericks: in commerce, consumers aspire to become different people by acquiring products; in politics, citizens support mayors' brands because they seek to become carriers of the same values. Voting and buying have thus become increasingly synonymous in citizens' primal search for a means of expressing their identities.

1. Brands as a solution to the mobilization dilemma
2. Catalysts of machine demise
3. Political campaigning in the wake of the machine
4. Changing public minds
5. Brands and megaprojects
6. Elusive representation
7. Brand politics in global context.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Comparative politics [JPB], Politics & government [JP], Sociology [JHB]