Intergovernmental relations and uneven development in the Detroit and Nagoya auto regions

The relationship among political economic context, intergovernmental relations, and metropolitan development in the Detroit and Nagoya Auto Regions, over the past three decades, is the theme of my dissertation. During my research, I investigated four related research questions. First, what type of metropolitan development patterns (balanced or uneven) have evolved in Detroit and Nagoya Auto Regions, over the past three decades? Second, what kind of inter-municipal relations have come to exist in each region, during this period? Third, what has been the political economic context for inter-municipal relations and metropolitan development in the U.S. and Japan, since 1969? Finally, what has been the relationship among political economic context, intergovernmental relations, and metropolitan development in these two regions?;My methods combined literature research, descriptive data analysis, and in-depth, open-ended, face-to-face interviews with 142 land use and development officials, representing more than 50 municipalities in the Detroit and Nagoya Auto Regions.;What I discovered was that within the political-economic context of (1) the development policies of the U.S. Federal Regulatory State; (2) Michigan's strong homerule; (3) racial and class conflict; and (4) Fordist production practices; competitive, noncooperative inter-municipal relations have come to exist in the Detroit Auto Region. This context has also fostered little local support for metropolitan planning. Inter-municipal competition, accompanied by the absence of comprehensive metropolitan planning, has then resulted in extremely uneven development in the Detroit Auto Region over the past three decades.;In contrast: (1) the development policies of Japan's Unitary Developmental State; (2) partial local autonomy; (3) an absence of race and class conflict; and (4) Toyotaism; have promoted cooperative inter-municipal relations in the Nagoya Auto Region. This has, subsequently fostered strong local support for comprehensive metropolitan development planning. The net result of cooperative inter-municipal relations and metropolitan planning has been balanced development in the Nagoya Auto Region over the past three decades.