Metropolizacja a lokalne „governance”. Globalne wyzwania państwa narodowego na przykładzie V Republiki Francuskiej
Metropolization and Local Governance. Global Challenges of the Nation-State on the Example of the French Fifth Republic

Author(s): Robert Pyka
Subject(s): Politics, Governance, Public Administration, Public Law, Sociology
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Metropolization; Local Governance; French Fifth Republic
Summary/Abstract: Globalization undoubtedly is one of modern processes which lay foundations for most significantchanges to contemporary societies. Social, economic and political phenomena, undergoingwithin nation-states and independently on them, have become a part of the network of globalconcerns and relations that the states are able to control no more than in a limited sense. In termsof localness the phenomenon is reflected in the processes of metropolization of urban agglomerationswhich form their own unique systems of governance. In doing so, they become distinctivelaboratories of new forms of government and democracy. The increasing inadequacy of the territorialstructure of the state and its institutional systems in terms of network systems and multilevelrelations that form new and functional living space for contemporary man are responsiblefor initiating reforms in states. However, the process of those changes does not go automatically,and it most often stands for a confrontation of the global system imperatives with values, normsand institutions deeply rooted in social structure and shaped in the Westphalian era. Therefore,the search for wise answers to global challenges abounds in diverse results, an example of whichmay be seen in hybrid territorial units in France which are concomitant with the specific formsof governance that are formed within. Despite the fact that the book deals with French status quoin the main, it touches upon universal issues which concern challenges that modern democraticnation-states have to meet.The book addresses all researchers of contemporary times, who make an attempt to come todeeper understanding of the changes that a modern state and democracy have to face in timeswhen the global system is being shaped. Unique is the fact that this book transcends theoreticaldigressions being at the same time embedded in the context of a particular society.The conclusions are based on an extensive empirical sources that the author of this bookcollected while conducting his research in France, where he had the honor of running discussionswith French eminent scholars, politicians and people engaged in self-government. According tothe reviewer of the book, professor Kazimierz Z. Sowa: „The collected research material presentsitself as very interesting and valuable one; additionally its research method makes it a sui generissource of information. [...] The results provide us with a solid amount of knowledge about modernFrance whose problems go beyond the present ones.”

• Details
• Contents