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21 J.L. & Pol. 261 (2005)
Defensive Localism: A View of the Field from the Field

handle is hein.journals/jlp21 and id is 269 raw text is: Defensive Localism: A View of the Field From the Field David J. Barron and Gerald E. Frug* I. INTRODUCTION Proponents of regionalism usually blame the recognition of local autonomy, otherwise known as home rule, for familiar metropolitan problems - housing segregation, the stark divide between rich and poor communities, environmentally destructive sprawl. They say that states have enabled municipalities to act like independent sovereigns and that selfish local policymaking has led to problematic growth in virtually every metropolitan area. Regionalists argue, therefore, that in order to stop individual municipalities from pursuing parochial ends, power must be shifted upwards - if not entirely, then substantially. But regionalists doubt this shift will occur. Why, they wonder, would local communities favor dismantling such an empowering legal structure?' We offer a different view. We do not think that local governments have anything like autonomy. Even states that have formal home rule structures place significant limits on local policymaking, and greater-than-local forces exert significant pressure on local choices. It seems implausible, therefore, that local actors understand themselves to be autonomous in any meaningful way. The form of local power most cities and towns possess grants them only limited authority. It is this condition of having limited power - rather than of being autonomous - that underlies the wariness towards regionalism. This condition encourages an insular and defensive mindset that makes regionalism an unattractive risk. The parochialism that regionalists rightly wish to check, therefore, is as much a consequence of . David J. Barron is Professor of Law, and Gerald E. Frug is the Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law, at Harvard Law School. The authors would like to thank the students involved with the planning of the conference, as well as Professor Rich Schragger for organizing it. In addition, we would like to thank Professors Vicki Been , Sheryll Cashin, and William Fischel for their helpful comments on the draft, the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston for funding our survey of local governments in the Boston metropolitan area, and Dean Alan Alshuler and Charles Euchner for their unflagging support of this project. 1 See generally David J. Barron, Reclaiming Home Rule, 116 HARV. L. REV. 2257, 2266-76 (2003) (describing this set of views). For a representative statement of the position from a legal scholar, see Sheryll D. Cashin, Localism, Self-Interest, and the Tyranny of the Favored Quarter: Addressing the Barriers to New Regionalism, 88 GEO. L.J. 1985 (2000). For a similar view from a political scientist, see Donald F. Norris, Prospects for Regional Governance Under the New Regionalism: Economic Imperatives Versus Political Impediments, 23 J. URB. AFF. 557 (2001).

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