The role of mayors

The last post I wrote got me thinking about mayors and their role in everything we have been discussing so far. It seems to me that in notoriously corrupt places like Third World countries, mayors and city government have great potential to do good. Federal-level programs and resources have a long way to go before there impact is felt (filtered down through state, regional and local government) and there are many points at which the funding can be sipped in to … However, locally-generated and locally-controlled money like through a mayor’s office can be more tightly controlled, more quickly felt in good projects and more directly applied to locally relevant issues.

It also occurred to me that several Latin American mayors have made history and/or are making headlines:

Jaime Lerner (Curitiba, Brazil)
Enrique Penalosa (Bogota, Colombia)
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (Mexico D.F., Mexico)

Or this unfortunate mayor in Ilave, Peru who was dragged through the streets and killed for his percieved role in corruption (four council members were also beaten severely). This debacle is also described as bringing down Peru’s Interior Minister at the time Fernando Rospigioli (BBC article here).

What is the role of the mayor in Latin American cities? In all developing countries for that matter? How can they be the fulcrum for positive change in a region or even an entire country? I dno’t know the answers, but to this committed small ‘d’ democrat, they seem like important things to be thinking about.

For the fun of it … Check out “World Mayor 2007,” the world’s most outstanding mayor of 2007 will soon be announced.