Master of Arts in Public Policy and Administration
MPPA 490-0
( Elective ) Special Topics: Approaches to Regional Economies in the Midwest
For many decades, the failure of the Midwest to rise to new economic challenges has earned it the name, Rustbelt, a term that applies equally to rural and urban locations. But has this description been used too generally? After all, the Midwest, when placed under further scrutiny, presents wildly variable examples of success, and some of the strongest survivors are metropolitan areas that implemented a form of regional cooperation - the Twin Cities serving as a prime case study. This in turn raises the question as to how to define regionalism within the Midwest. What is a region? A city, its suburbs, multiple counties, an area as big as a state, or a partnership between states? How has regional economic policy varied within the Midwest? Can the Midwest itself be considered a region? Although a stated goal of regionalism is cooperation, does not this approach further competition between regions, in some ways undermining the idea of working together? And what happens when regionalism implies a loss of local control? This course will attempt to answer these questions through a comparative study of policy-making, focusing on Midwestern case studies that extend from a total lack of regionalism (Detroit), to an overt effort at it (Twin Cities), as well as examples from the middle of the range where regionalism occurred in an ad hoc method (Chicago). Along the way, the course will identify policy issues that tend to be regional in character, such as transportation, higher education, job creation, business development, and the environment. Counts toward all MPPA specializations.
