Pugna por gobernanza urbano-metropolitana en Chile: resistencia de agencias y reforma intergubernamental con poder regional

Abstract

Chile has opted for the dual governance of cities after a period of increasing territorial demands for autonomy. Three presidential commissions with dissimilar proposals have produced a hybrid intergovernmental response based on a ministerial committee that reached an agreement with regional-municipal alliances, under the tutelage of the governor-elect. Based on the information gathered from the 2014 regional council meetings, interviews with regional actors, and the examples of Santiago, Greater Valparaiso and Greater Concepcion, the struggle for urban governance that requires a greater demand for strong mobility and environmental policies, has become one of the focal points of the problems of cities in Chile, thus promoting accelerated decentralization processes from the regions. The objective of this article is to expose the conflict that exists in the management models of cities in a traditionally centralist country that is evolving towards an incremental mixed model of metropolitan governance with intergovernmentalism, which causes symbolic power to fall to a regional governor, but that obliges both pacts with the powerful national state agencies and consulting about key plans with the future council of mayors that constitute a metropolitan territory. It is evident that this process implies a path not without difficulties, which aims to strengthen public sector relations, incorporate municipalities into territorial discussions, hold talks with relevant private and academic sector actor,s and involve citizens in metropolitan management.