The Elements And Theoretical Schools Of Urban Politics

City, as the site of the growth and development of democracy in the industrial age, becomes an important object of modern democracy research, and therefore urban politics has become an important aspect of political science research. Nowadays, the urban function has changed from the consumption type of traditional politics to the modern production type. Subsequently, the interests and their subjects gradually split up, and urban politics has become a more complex and systematic process. Contemporary urban politics has been fairly different from the past when the urban politics was regarded with the government authority and the rule, and it has begun to regard the benefit distribution and the development questions, take the related policy network as its core governance process. Under the new circumstance and challenge, how does the Chinese city position itself? How does it coordinate all kinds of public interests, and guide the scientific and sustainable urban development? Obviously, it is very valuable to develop and deepen the study of urban politics, whether it is for the reality of urban development, or to enrich the study of Chinese political content.The study is aimed to narrate and comment on the development of urban politics in China, and then to propose some advice on how to construct the scientific research system of urban politics, by comparison with the mature and systemic theory of urban politics overseas. In content, the thesis is divided into three chapters:Chapter 1 explains the basic theory of urban politics by analyzing its definition, internal elements and external elements of the three dimensions. In modern society, urban politics is heading towards a road that multi-stakeholders govern together. The elements that impacts on the political development of modern cities are internal elements, which are the urban power structure, the types of urban interests, and the subjects of urban politics, and external factors, which are vertical and horizontal relations between the two levels of government.Chapter 2 overviews the urban politics research by analyzing the track of urban politics theory and the patterns of urban politics. In the west, the theory research and the development patterns of urban politics are more mature and systematic, which experienced the track from the Elite Theory and Pluralism, Grow Machine and Urban Regime to the Urban Governance. In China, we generally use west theories and patterns for reference.Chapter 3 is aimed to explore some directive suggestions which are helpful to develop urban politics based on the analysis of the evolution background and the development status of urban politics in China. With the coming of the market-oriented era, the promotion of urban status, and the emergence of civil society, etc. urban politics is heading for a new pattern. However, for various reasons, there are still some problems worthy to think deeply during the development process of urban politics. The article holds that the limited government, governing the city according to law, public participation, multi-center governance, and so on, are key for the urban politics to go to the good governance...