Mayors’ Agendas: Emerging Variations on the Theme of Entrepreneurialism

Abstract

It is assessed which specific objectives of the mayors’ activities have occurred—particularly against the background of the enduring economic crisis and the emergence of new social and environmental issues. Referring to Stone’s analysis of urban regimes, interpreting the data collected during the previous survey on mayors—which dates back ten years ago—it has been shown how intensely local leaders felt responsible for mobilising the resources necessary to face proactively global competition and to assure local development. From the current data emerges a tripartite trend in the European mayors’ agendas: three political patterns where the attention to local development and economic growth is still prevalent. Nevertheless, in comparison with the past, mayors’ political priorities are now characterised by a less marked orientation towards the improvement in local infrastructural endowments, with the relevant exception of eastern European countries. At the same time, the social and environmental challenges bring with them new policy trends. The issues related to land consumption and population density take importance, in particular among the mayors of the cities located in the southern countries of Europe.