THE POLITICS OF COMPETITIVE REGIONALISM IN GREATER BOSTON.

Neil Brenner argues that contemporary scholarship often neglects the changing contexts of regionalism and thus overstates the possibilities for organizing new political responses to changing economic conditions. Drawing on Brenner's analysis, this paper examines the politics of regionalism in Greater Boston, a metropolitan area where state government plays the dominant role in policymaking. It examines how state elected officials have responded to the region's volatile economic context, and in particular how they have attempted to enhance the region's competitive advantage through tax cuts, deregulation and downsizing government. Their successes, however, have complicated efforts to reform local land use regulation, an issue increasingly seen as central to the region's economic future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]