A Theoretical Framework of Change: a Case Study of the Seattle Metropolitan Area

• Author: Robert Warren
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296101400357
• Published date: 01 September 1961
• Date: 01 September 1961
• Subject Matter: Articles

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community in a huge metropolitan area (estimated population 8,438,190).
To the 373 pages of the Report must be added 2,923 double-column pages of
oral testimony, 187 pages of written evidence from central government depart-
ments, and the voluminous written evidence submitted by 106 local authorities,
11 local authority associations, 127 miscellaneous organizations, and 26 private
individuals. This is rich ore that American students should mine for political
theories, political tactics, and strategies of survival and expansion, and for tech-
niques of responsible official inquiry into the problems and conditions of local
self-government in a large metropolis.
It may be that the Report will not be directly used or specifically cited in
similar inquiries in the United States. However, if the Commission had recom-
mended that no changes in governmental structure and the distribution
of functions be made, or that the functions of metropolitan scope be trans-
ferred to the central government, or that additional special authorities be
created, the effect on American approaches to the government of metropolitan
communities would have been sharp and clear.
Of particular interest in the United States is the contribution of the
Commission to the discussion of what we call the federated form of metropolitan
government. Contrary to the trend in the United States, the Commission recom-
mends that the metropolitan council be directly elected rather than made up
of representatives of the metropolitan borough councils. On the other hand,
if the recommendations are accepted, then the metropolitan borough would be
restored to stronger position than even American cities and counties are likely to
enjoy under a federated scheme of metropolitan government.
Secondly, the Commission’s Report will help to correct the mistaken attack
of American &dquo;realists&dquo; upon what they call the typical administrative approach
to the governance of metropolitan communities. The Commission...