Learning Objectives

  • Describe the “missing level of government” and the difficulties its absence creates for local governance,
  • Identify the key characteristics of sprawl and how they shape urban development patterns,
  • Summarize the negative impacts of sprawl and metropolitan growth,
  • Discuss current approaches to creating regional governance,
  • Contrast the Tiebout model with efforts to reform metropolitan governance by creating regional governments, and
  • Describe the big challenges of “rural metropolitics” and how they differ from the big challenges of metropolitics in more urban areas.