Volume 26, Number 1, September 2016

Volume 26, Number 1, September 2016

Global politics

City mayors

Clare Stansfield

There is a new breed of city mayors who have power, high profiles and significant budgets.The four mayors profiled below have all assumed office since 2014 and are all left leaning and operating on an international stage.These mayors sometimes have more freedom to act than the leaders of the countries they represent, and often have larger personal mandates.They are also young (for politicians in these positions) and two of them are female.

Sadiq Khan: London

@SadiqKhan @mayoroflondon

Born 8 October 1970, assumed office 9 May 2016

Sadiq Khan was born in south London. As he reiterated throughout his mayoral campaign, he was one of eight children of a Pakistani bus driver. Khan grew up on a council estate and attended state schools before studying law at university.He trained as a human-rights lawyer and practised for about 15 years before becoming a Labour MP in 2005.He quickly rose to prominence, becoming a minister after only 3 years. When he became a member of the Privy Council he had to take a copy of the Qu’ran to Buckingham Palace to swear on.

Khan campaigned to become London mayor in what became a divisive, and arguably racist, contest. His main rival for the position was old Etonian Zack Goldsmith.In May 2016 Khan was elected: the first Muslim to become mayor of any major Western capital.By claiming 57% of the vote and 1.3 million votes (after first and second preferences were counted using the SV system) Khan has the largest personal mandate of any politician in the history of the UK and is the most senior elected Labour politician.He has the third largest personal mandate in Europe.

Khan’s policy pledges focused upon freezing transport fares (although this has been watered down since his election), dealing with the housing crisis (with a 50% affordable housing target), and being‘the most pro-business mayor ever’, a left yet centrist position. Since the Brexit vote, which like most Londoners he strongly opposed,he has argued that the London mayor and assembly need more devolved powers.

Bill de Blasio: New York

@BilldeBlasio

Born 8t May 1961, assumed office 1 January 2014

Bill de Blasio was born in New York to a family of German and Italian immigrants.He has worked in New York since graduating from university where he studied international and public affairs.De Basio started working for the first African-American mayor of New York, David N. Dinkins, before moving into the departments of housing and education.

In 2000 de Basio managed Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the US Senate before developing his own career in 2002 in elected office on the New York City Council.His focus has continued to be on both expanding affordable housing and improving public (state) education. New York has the third most segregated city school system in the USA.

De Basio became the first Democrat mayor of the city since 1992 and was elected with 73% of the vote.His campaign focused on ending ‘stop and search’ and improving relations between the police and African American citizens.De Basio also closed a post-9/11 surveillance programme which monitored Muslim residents.He has ensured that homeless New Yorkers can secure better access to city services with identification cards that only require a ‘care of’ address rather than a permanent residence.

De Basio is currently focused on expanding the availability of publicly funded pre-kindergarten spaces for all young New Yorkers, believing that improvements in pre-school education will reduce poverty and inequalities.As mayor, de Basio has a budget of $70 billion a year, which is the largest municipal budget in the USA.

Anne Hildago:Paris

@Anne_Hildago

Born 19 June 1959, assumed office 5 April 2014

Anne Hildago was born in Cadiz, southern Spain, to a socialist family who migrated to France when she was only two.She studied social work, then social and trade unionism at university before becoming a civil servant focused upon labour law and employment rights.Hildago then became an advisor to a number of cabinet ministers, again specialising in employment, women’s rights and justice.

She was deputy mayor of Paris(for the Socialist Party) for 13 years before winning 55% of the vote in the first mayoral campaign of a major city where the two main candidates were female.This is remarkable, given that the two leading political parties in France have paid financial penalties (due to French equalities law) rather than field an equal number of male/female candidates.

Hildago’s policies have focused upon investing in the city without raising taxes.She intends to build more social housing and her policies have a clear green slant, introducing more speed limits and banning diesel vehicles from the city.Since assuming office, Hildago and Paris have had to endure the horrific attacks on the Bataclan nightclub and the Charlie Hebdo offices.Hildago has argued that the city needs to fight discrimination, responding that Paris ‘will continue to be attached to freedom, equality and fraternity.’

Virginia Raggi: Rome

@virginiaraggi

Born 18 July 1978, assumed office 22 June 2016

Virginia Raggi was born in Rome where she studied law at university.After practising as a lawyer she joined the newly founded Five Star Movement, which was established in 2009 on an anti-corruption platform.From 2011 she joined a neighbourhood board before becoming a member of the city council. Raggio won the mayoral election with 67% of the second round of votes which made her both the first female and first member of the Five Star Movement to become mayor.She became leader of a city that had been without a mayor for 8 months following the resignation of the previous mayor, Marino, owing to an expenses scandal.Alongside fighting corruption Raggi has also promised to deal with rubbish collection (introducing recycling) and the transport system, which are the two most common complaints by residents.

Questions to consider

• In a world of supranational organisations and increasing globalisation, has the role of city mayor assumed more importance?
• Can city mayors operate successfully if they have different politics and ideologies from the leaders of the country?
• Does the personal mandate of the city mayor mean that they have more power than a prime minister who is not directly elected?

Clare Stansfield is head of History and Politics at St Francis Xavier College

Hodder & Stoughton © 2016