May 2019, Year XI, n. 5
Manuela Carmena
The Dueña Mayor
Telos: Every time someone talks about the direct election of the Prime Minister, people use the very evocative expression “Mayor of Italy”. This shows that Mayors have more power to impact on their citizens’ everyday life even than the Head of the Government. Does this apply also to Spain?
Manuela Carmena: Mayors lead a Local Government team and it is true that their decisions have a straight impact on the citizens. Perhaps even more visible than the decisions that the National government can take. The City Council is the closest administration to the citizens which many times call our door, because it is the closest to them. The National Government, the European Union or other agencies establish agendas against climate change, for example, but then the ones in charge for implementing these policies are City Councils ...more
Editorial
If Mayors Ruled the World is the title of a well-known book by Benjamin Barber about cities as global players. The subheading is perfect: dysfunctional nations, rising cities.The book focusses on the contrast between national and city governments: national governments that are more and more useless and city governments that instead do plenty of useful things for their citizens. But their work isn’t appreciated as it should be ...more
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