Working Paper: 466

Urban Governance in the Context of Urban ‘Primacy’:
A Comparison of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh

Anil Kumar Vaddiraju

 

Abstract

This article posits that studies dealing with the contemporary urbanization phenomenon in respect of the developing countries need to pay as much attention to ‘governance’ as to their ‘political economy’. The paper contrasts the overemphasis on the political economy of cities with a comparison of the urbanization process and governance with respect to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh as a case in point. The paper finds that the two states continue to remain characterized by ‘urban primacy’ and the absence of a required focus on constitutional governance despite the presence of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act. The paper emphasises that there is need for concerted efforts on the part of the state towards a genuine urban decentralization in the context of a growing urban centralization and ‘primacy’ in order to ensure that governance at the district and taluk-level cities is not neglected completely.

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