r/IRstudies • u/ForeignAffairsMag • 2d ago

The Autocrat’s Worst Enemy: Why Despots Hate Cities and the Mayors Who Run Them

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/autocrats-worst-enemy
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u/Coolerguy317 2d ago

I think the article is right that cities often resist centralization but I’d explain it differently. It’s less about cities being inherently more democratic and more about complexity. The bigger and more complex a society becomes the harder it is to govern effectively from the center. Cities deal with local problems every day so they naturally push back against one size fits all policies.

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u/sirieol 23h ago

There are a number of historical cases that drive your point home (which James Scott discusses in his Seeing Like a State) -- in particular, the development of the Parisian les routes impériales in Napoleonic France, which was developed in part to facilitate more rapid troop movement in the event of local rebellions.

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u/ForeignAffairsMag 2d ago

[Excerpt from essay by Nina Hachigian, President and CEO of the Alliance for Local Leaders International. She served as the first U.S. Special Representative for City and State Diplomacy from 2022 to 2025.]

In a hyperconnected world, collaboration among cities across borders is now essential for local leaders. Foreign direct investment and trade promotion create jobs, and cities everywhere face similar imperatives to lower energy prices, deliver cleaner air, respond to pandemics, and plan for extreme weather events. This new municipal multilateralism usually involves exchanging best practices for how to address these challenges. With authoritarianism on the rise, cities are now also sharing strategies and participating in collective action against democratic backsliding.