Regulation Theory,Post-Fordism andUrban Politics

IntroductionDuring the 1980s there are some who seek an interpretation of urban politics, therefore some of urban theorists, urban and political geographers and political scientist start to study on the writings of French economists that working in the Marxist economics also known as the regulation theorists for them to understand and able to explain about urban politics. The main concern of the regulation theorists is to explain economic changes and their ideas it doesnt include consideration of the state, government and politics. Regulation theory for urban political theorists has three main sources. First it present an account of the changing character of capitalist economies and the role of cities within them. It thus provides a context against which to discuss urban political change. Second it examines the connection and interrelation between social, political, economic and cultural change. This potentially avoids some of the problems encountered by those theories which focus on one aspect of the political whole. Third it tries to avoid a rather different set of difficulties associated with some versions of orthodox Marxism, which accord only a secondary role to political processes.Regulation Theory is still very young and there is much scope for further development. As this chapter go on, it will discuss the progress that has been made so far in applying the ideas of regulation theory in the sphere of urban politics. Key concepts of the approach consider three of them in relation to urban politics: the labour process, the fordist mode of regulation and the post fordist mode of regulation.

REGULATION THEORY: AN EXPOSITIONThe Concept of RegulationHISTORYRegulation Theory originated in France in the 1970s and early 1980s in the work of a number of Marxist economists including Michel Aglietta, Robert Boyer and Alain Lipietz. It has subsequently been developed by economists, geographers, political theories and other working in a variety of countries. As a result it has become a rich but highly diverse, school of thought. Michel Aglietta (born 1938) is a French economist, currently Professor of Economics at the University of Paris X: Nanterre. Michel Aglietta is a scientific counsellor at CEPII, a member of the University Institute of France, and a consultant to Groupama. From 1997 to 2003, he was a member of the Council of economic analysis for the French Prime Minister. His monograph A Theory of Capitalist Regulation: The US Experience (Verso, 1976) laid the foundation for the regulation school of economics. Michel Aglietta was one of the founders in 1976, with Robert Boyer, of the regulation school. He is a specialist in international monetary economy, known for his work on the functions of financial markets.Alain Lipietz (born September 19, 1947 in Charenton-le-Pont as Alain Guy Lipiec) is a French engineer, economist and politician, a former Member of the European Parliament, and a member of the French Green Party. He has, however, been suspended from the party since 25 March 2014 and is an elected local politician in Val de Bivre, Paris, France. Alain Lipietz studied at the cole polytechnique (entered in 1966) and the cole Nationale des Ponts et Chausses (diploma in 1971). He then obtained a master's degree in economics (1972). Since the beginning of his career, he has devoted himself to the analysis of social-economic relationships within human communities. He has contributed to the Regulation school of economic thought.

REGULATION THEORYRegulation Theory is a currently-fashionable type of Marxist economic theory. Regulation in this case does not just mean rules and regulations, it means the self-regulation mechanisms of a system. Marxist Economics Marxist economics comes from the ideas of a philosopher named Karl Marx applied to economics. He created it to explain the "rules of motion" of production and exchange under capitalism. This theory was used to argue against the middle class theories of economics common at that time. Marx wanted this to be a tool for the working class (the proletariat) to use to overthrow capitalism and replace it with socialism, then with communism. Socialism, would be a step towards the disappearance of the state, and communism would be, according to Marx, a society where goods and services would be distributed "to each according to his need, from each according to his ability."The economy is not something abstract which happens in isolation, it happens in the context of social, cultural, political and other systems. Regulation theory therefore sees the intimate interconnections between the economy and society.In Regulation Theory the interest focuses upon the way in which the economy is embedded in social, cultural, political and other contexts. In the context of these, the economy is self-regulating.There is a certain amount of confusion about the nature of regulation theory, which has arisen partly because of a misinterpretation of this central idea. In English, the term regulation usually refers to conscious and active intervention by the state or other collective organizations. While in French, this sense is conveyed by the word reglementation and not by regulation. The problem arises as the term regulation is often used in the context of general systems theory.Regulation theory discusses historical change of the political economy through two central concepts:1. Regime of Accumulation (or accumulation regime, AR) The concept of regime of accumulation allows theorists to analyze the way production, circulation, consumption, and distribution organize and expand capital in a way that stabilizes the economy over time.Refers to a set of macroeconomic relation which allow expanded capital accumulation without the system being immediately and catastrophically undermined by its instabilities. The imbalances in the cycle of reproduction, production, circulation and consumption are postponed. Regime of accumulation may be identified when rough imbalances between production, consumption and investment, and between the demand and supply of labor and capital allow economic growth to be maintained with reasonable stability over a relatively long period. 2. Mode of Regulation or MR Set of institutional laws, norms, and forms of state, policy paradigms, and other practices that provide the context for the AR's operation. Typically, it is said that it comprises a money form, a competition form, a wage form, a state form, and an international regime, but it can encompass many more elements than these. Generally speaking, MRs support ARs by providing a conducive and supportive environment, in which the ARs are given guidelines that they should follow. In cases of tension between the two, a crisis may occur.

REGULATION APPROACHThe regulation approach is a still evolving research programed that offers a very interesting and fruitful way to analyze the interconnections between the institutional forms and dynamic regularities of capitalist economies. In contrast with orthodox economics but in line with Marxs own work, the RA does not aim to provide a general, transhistorical account of economic conduct or economic performance. Nor does it seek to naturalize capitalism by treating its continued reproduction as an essentially unproblematic expression of rational economic behavior. Instead it aims to develop concepts and models that correspond to the historically specific features of capitalism and to enable its adherents to explain why capital accumulation, although it is inherently improbable in the light of these features, can nonetheless continue for relatively extended periods without witnessing major crises. Accordingly, the RA provides a reproductive account of the changing combinations of economic and extra-economic institutions, norms, and practices that help to secure, if only temporarily and always in specific economic spaces, a certain stability and predictability in economic conduct and accumulation despite the fundamental contradictions and conflicts inherent in capitalism.The regulationist research programme has four principal features. Two of these are methodological and two substantive. All four are rooted in the Marxist heritage of early regulationism something that has become less evident with time but that still links the main regulationist schools. Indeed, this basic concern with the generative mechanisms, crisis tendencies, and recurrent stabilization of capitalism has provoked from some quarters fierce but mistaken criticism of the RAs alleged confirmation of capitalisms inevitability and its role in belittling the class struggle to overthrow it.The first feature of the regulationist research programme to be explored here is that the RA typically works with an implicitly critical realist scientific ontology and epistemology. These are implicit in the sense that, whilst the RA adopts critical realist assumptions and procedures in practice, it does not present them as critical realist. This is largely because it is examining capitalism as a specific object of inquiry with specific structures and mechanisms rather than presenting an under labouring philosophical argument for the validity of critical realism in general.Second, its broad substantive theoretical concerns derive from the general Marxist tradition of historical materialism with its interest in developing a critical political economy of capitalism and anatomy of bourgeois civil society. Third, it explores the changing forms and mechanisms extra-economic as well as economic through which the expanded reproduction of capital relation is at least provisionally secured despite its inherent structural contradictions and emergent conflictual properties. Fourth, in line with this implicit critical realism and its substantive concerns, the RA rejects both the essentialist method of subsumption and the reductionist method of logical derivation in developing its concepts and analysis. Instead, emphasizing the contingent actualization of natural necessities, it adopts a method of articulation in building accounts of regulation.

Fordism. Neo-Fordism and Post-Fordism.Fordism the term was first coined = in the 1930s by the Italian Marxist, Gramsci it is most often used today to refer to the long boom in Western development which lasted from 1945-1974Neo-Fordism refers to an intensification of Fordist arrangements is the term used to describe an approach to work organization that is essentially Fordist, but has been adapted to incorporate a greater degree of flexibility. This adaptation has occurred because even though there is still a market for mass-produced goods and services, customers expect a greater degree of variation and choice than ever before. Within manufacturing, commentators argue that techniques such as just-in-time, lean production, kaizen, and business process re-engineering are merely refinements to the traditional techniques associated with Fordism. Commentators also argue that many of the new, service-sector industries that supposedly demonstrate a post-Fordist approach to work organization also rely on Fordist techniques. For example, there has been a massive growth in call centres but neo-Fordist commentators consider these to be the factories of the future where rows of alienated white-collar workers sit processing information, under a system of electronic surveillance that constantlyPost-Fordism implies a transition to a qualitatively new set of relationships. more problematic than the concept of Fordism. The term post-Fordism is used to describe both a relatively durable form of economic organization that happened to emerge after Fordism and a new form of economic organization that actually resolves the crisis tendencies of Fordism. In neither case does the term as such have any real positive content. This is why some theorists propose substantive alternatives, such as Toyotism, Fujitsuism, Sonyism, and Gatesism or, again, informational capitalism, the knowledge-based economy, and the network economy.

Three main approaches to identifying the post-Fordist regime: 1. a focus on the transformative role of new technologies and practices regarding material and immaterial production, especially new information and communication technologies and their role in facilitating a new, more flexible, networked global economy; 2. a focus on the leading economic sectors that enable a transition from mass industrial production to postindustrial production; 3. a focus on how major crisis tendencies of Fordism are resolved through the consolidation of a new and stable series of economic and extra-economic institutions and forms of governance that facilitate the rise and consolidation of profitable new processes, products, and markets. However, even decades after the crisis of Fordism emerged in the mid-1970s, debates continue about whether a stable post-Fordist order has emerged and, indeed, whether Fordist stability was a parenthesis in an otherwise disorderly, crisis-prone capitalist system.

Those who believe that a stable post-Fordism has already emerged or, at least, is feasible see its key features as:1. flexible production based on flexible machines or systems and a flexible workforce2. a stable mode of growth based on flexible production, economies of scope, rising incomes for skilled workers and the service class, increased demand among the better-off for differentiated goods and services, increased profits based on permanent innovation and the full utilization of flexible capacity, reinvestment in more flexible production equipment and techniques and new sets of products;3. growing economic polarization between multiskilled workers and the unskilled, together with a decline in national or industrial collective bargaining; 4. the rise of flexible, lean, and networked firms that focus on their core competences, build strategic alliances, and outsource many other activities; 5. the dominance of hypermobile, rootless, private bank credit and forms of cybercash that circulate internationally; 6. the subordination of government finance to international money and currency markets; 7. a shift from postwar welfare states (as described by John Maynard Keynes) to political regimes that are more concerned with international competitiveness and innovation, with full employability as opposed to jobs for life, and with more flexible, market-friendly forms of economic and social governance; 8. increasing concern with governing local, regional, supranational, and even global economies.Regulation Theory is often mistakenly assumed to be synonymous with theories of Fordism and post-Fordism. it is a set of organizing principles and as an approach to analysis, rather than a series of substantive accounts. (Jessop and Boyer stress the broadly methodological character of regulation theory)

Concepts such as Fordism and post-Fordism come lower down the hierarchy of abstraction they are examples of ideas which some regulationists have developed to make more substantive claims about specific societies.

Four different categories: Labor Process Involves the production of long runs of standardized commodities Archetypally this involves a moving assembly line staffed by workers executing a limited range of production tasks and separated from the design of both the product and the production process Regime of Accumulation Fordism involves a virtuous circle of growth based on mass production and mass consumption Mass production provides economies of scale and productivity growth, which in turn allow wage increases, providing a market which can sustain mass consumption Mode of Regulation is the set of social, cultural and political supports which promote the compatibility between production and consumption in the regime of accumulation these supports operate through particular norms, networks and institutions which are the outcomes of social and political conflicts they include: the form of the wage relation the character of social organization within and between firms a system of money supply based on national central banks and private credit mass media and mass advertising, marketing and retailing to promote the connection between mass production and mass consumption the Keynesian welfare state which manages aggregate demand through fiscal policy and generalizes the norm of mass consumption through collective provision of certain services and transfer payments to the unwaged. can never permanently resolve the contradictions of capitalism, but only translate acute crisis tendencies Eventually, the contradictions do build up and prevent the established mode of regulation from operating to promote the economic growth. Fordism developed to a greater and more complete extent in some countries than others, and the timing and consequences of its failure also varied considerably.

1970s was the decade when the limits to Fordism began to become apparent1980s was when a series of political strategies began to be adopted in attempts to resolve the problems.In due course, if certain of these strategies, or a combination of them, succeed in securing a new phse of economic growth, it may be possible to identify a new post-Fordist phase. Mode of Societalization which specifies the overall social impact of the characteristics discussed above on wider aspects of society such as cultural life, spatial organization and the political system.

CRISIS OF FORDISM The growth potential of mass production was gradually exhausted, and there was intensified working-class resistance to its alienating working conditions the market for mass consumer durables became saturated; a declining profit rate coincided with stagflation; a fiscal crisis developed internationalization made state economic management less effective; clients began to reject standardized, bureaucratic treatment in the welfare stateAmerican economic dominance and political hegemony were threatened by European and East Asian expansionState would have a particular role to play in a post-Fordist mode of regulation. would play a stronger role in promoting competitiveness of both specific firms and of the overall socio-economic system with the internationalization of financial and productive capital will become more involved in supply side interventions of various kinds, including in the labour market. may become hollowed out at the same time some of its powers will be passed upwards to supranational bodies, such as the European Union, which arguably have greater capacity to act in a globalized economic system other powers may be devolved downwards to local or regional tiers of the state

Rise and fall of Mass ProductionFordismMass production began in Detroit in 1914 when Henry Ford discovered that a moving assembly line using interchangeable parts could radically reduce the cost of making motor cars. He sold 18m Model T Fords, transforming America into the first car-owning democracy, at a price that dropped from $600 to $250 over 15 years.

Mass production was unpleasant work, with high turnover. To retain his unskilled workforce, Ford doubled their wages to $5 per day - justified by higher productivity.

River RougeThe scale of mass production is hard to comprehend.Fords River Rouge plant in Detroit, completed in 1928, stretched for a mile along a tributary of the Detroit river and employed 100,000 men. Raw materials like iron ore and rubber were unloaded at one end, and finished cars emerged from the other end, 72 hours later.But Ford's system proved less efficient than GM, which produced a range of models for different pocketbooks.

Sit-Down StrikeLabor relations were troubled at the big automakers in the 1930s with layoffs and speed-ups.GM was the first company forced to recognize the UAW union after a sit-down strike closed its plants in Flint, Michigan in 1937.After more battles, the workers won higher wages and benefits, sharing in the American Dream. Unions also negotiated rigid work rules to protect workers from exploitation by foremen.

Flows in a Fordist and a Post-Fordist Production SystemIn a Fordist production system, supply chains are often discontinuous and subject to delays. Links between different functions generally imply an accumulation of inventory (raw materials, parts and manufactured goods) before their usage (processing, manufacturing and distribution). The high output levels of an assembly line require warehousing of all required parts in the vicinity. This cannot occur without a stable and constant demand, which is assumed to absorb a supply-oriented production. The transport function in such an environment is relying on economies of scale with delays at transfer points such as ports and rail yards.In a Post-Fordist environment, supply chain management tends to reduce the need for warehousing and increase the integration between elements of the value chain in a complex network of relationships (e.g. outsourcing). This system is more demand-derived with its elements adapting to constant fluctuations in the amount, origins and destinations of cargo flows. Under such circumstances, the transport function is closely integrated to production and distribution and is the main element minimizing delays and warehousing. A share of the inventory is in circulation.

Henry Ford (born on July 30, 1863 died on April 7,1947 ) One of America's foremost industrialists, Henry Ford revolutionized assembly-line modes of production for the automobile In 1914, he sponsored the development of the moving assembly line technique of mass production. Simultaneously, he introduced the $5-per-day wage ($110 in 2011) as a method of keeping the best workers loyal to his company. Simple to drive and cheap to repair, half of all cars in America in 1918 were Model T's. Henry Ford helped popularize the first meaning of Fordism in the 1920s, and it came to signify modernity in general.

HENRY FORD AND HIS AUTOMOBILES First car built in 1896 (Quadricycle) Driven by two-cylinder, four-cycle motor. Mounted on bicycle wheels; no reverse gear or brakes Started Ford Motor Company in 1903 Released successful Model T car in 1908 Total production 15 million

Antonio Gramsci Antonio Gramsci, (born Jan. 23, 1891, Ales, Sardinia, Italydied April 27, 1937, Rome), intellectual and politician, a founder of the Italian Communist Party whose ideas greatly influenced Italian communism. He wrote about Fordism in prison during the interwar period. He discussed the economic, political, and social obstacles to the transfer of Americanism and Fordism to continental Europe and highlighted its potential transformative power when controlled by workers rather than conservative forces. Gramscis comments inspired research on postwar Fordism and its crisis. Extracts of Gramscis prison writings were published for the first time in the mid-20th century; the complete Quaderni del carcere (Prison Notebooks) appeared in 1975. Many of his propositions became a fundamental part of Western Marxist thought and influenced the post-World War II strategies of communist parties in the West. His reflections on the cultural and political concept of hegemony (notably in southern Italy), on the Italian Communist Party itself, and on the Roman Catholic Church were particularly important. The letters he wrote from prison also were published posthumously as Lettere dal carcere (1947; Letters from Prison). Economic philosophyThat thought prosperity and high corporate profits could be achieved through paying the workers high wagesBob Jessop

(born 3 March 1946) He is a British academic and writer who has published extensively on state theory and political economy. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Lancaster.

Applications in Urban PoliticsWHAT IS A REGULATION THEORY?Robert Boyer describes the broad theory as "The study of the transformation of social relations, which creates new forms- both economic and non-economic- organized in structures and reproducing a determinate structure, the mode of reproduction".This theory or approach looks at capitalist economies as a function of social and institutional systems and not just as government's role in the regulation of the economy, although the latter is a major part of the approach.

Regulation in relation to urban politicsRegulation theory was developed as a theory of economic, not political, change. The breakdown of Fordism and the debates over its putative successor have generated considerable discussion among analysts. The emphasis in regulation theory on change and periodization holds out embedded and which can deal with qualitative shifts in the character of political processes and institutions. The contingent character of the emergence of regulation avoids the pitfalls of economic reductionism, while still allowing the crucial relationship between the state and economic processes to remain in the frame.

Interpretation of urban politics1.) Urban policy (state policies established to deal with perceived urban problems).2.) The institutions and processes of urban government and governance (involving not only the local tier of state administration, but all organizations exercising political authority at the local level whether public, private or voluntary and the relationships between these.3.) Political movements and processes operating at the urban scale, but outside institutions of governance (such as local community campaigns).Urban Politics and The Labour ProcessAglietta (born 1938,Chambry) He is a Frencheconomist, currently Professor ofEconomicsat theUniversity of Paris X: Nanterre Michel Aglietta was one of the founders in 1976, withRobert Boyer, of theregulation school. He is a specialist in international monetary economy, known for his work on the functions of financial markets. Argued that new production techniques and developments in the labour process had the capacity significantly to transform the provision of the means of collective consumption and thereby to reduce their cost.Hoggett He was among the first to introduce the notions of Fordism and neo-Fordism to an analysis of urban politics. In his consideration of decentralization initiatives by socialist city councils in Britain, he drew an analogy between the organization of production along fordist lines in manufacturing firms and the people-processing character of the welfare state.

DecentralizationDecentralization(ordecentralisation) is the process of redistributing or dispersing functions, powers, people or things away from a central location or authority.While centralization, especially in the governmental sphere, is widely studied and practiced, there is no common definition or understanding of decentralization.Decentralization supposedly involved a series of key changes which were characteristic of the neo-Fordist changes in the manufacturing labour process. These includes: An emphasis on customer care Leaner Flatter Managerial hierarchies Budgetary devolution Multiskilling and flexibility of the workforce A key role for information technology Adoption of new managerial ideologies

Stroker He goes somewhat further than Hoggett in discussing the restructuring of British local government for a post-Fordist society. However, like Hoggett, stroker regards the labour process within local government as of central significance. Within this, he includes the contracting out of service provision to private sector companies. Like Hoggett, he refers to the potential of information technology:The availability of information technology in all its forms data processing, communications and control, computer-aided design, office automation offers the possibility of recasting traditionally labour-intensive service activities. And one major use of such technology is to reduce the aggregate cost of a particular service and employment within it.

Geddes (2 October 1854 17 April 1932) He was a Scottish biologist, sociologist, geographer, philanthropist and pioneering town planner He also discusses the labour process within the provision of public services in urban areas, through his consideration of the local state. He comes to the same conclusion, that information technology offers opportunities to reorganize state production processes, to cut the costs of collective provision and to provide a more individualized product. There is a wide range of urban public services to which information technology and other forms of technological change is being applied.

Urban Politics and the Fordist Mode of RegulationFordist mode of regulation included a key role for the Keynesian welfare state, and in many ways it is in analysing the link between the welfare state and the urban arena that regulation theory has most to offer the study of urban politics. Fordist mode of regulationKeynesian welfare state set of social, cultural and political supportsKeynesian welfare state

manages aggregate demand through fiscal policy and generalizes the norm of mass consumption

manages aggregate demand through fiscal policy and generalizes the norm of mass consumption

URBAN POLICY Florida and Jonas discuss the link between regulation theory and postwar urban policy in the United States They argue that the Fordist mode of regulation in United States was intimately related to federal urban policyUS FORDISM1. Constituted in part by the ending of the social democratic experiment of the New Deal2. the Cold War circumscribing the legitimate role for the state, a limited class accord - growth of the military-industrial complex and emergence of new areas of economic growth3. US Fordism was to a significant extent privatized and depended on a spatial organization at the urban scale in which suburbanization was central

The Federal urban policies such as the expansion of education and the 1956 Highway Act promoted the shift to the suburbs, which in return then helped to generate the demand for goods and services to sustain the virtuous circle of growth of Fordism

Suburbanization reduced the need for the state intervention characteristic of Western European modes of regulation. It was accompanied by decentralization of private production and the spatial fragmentations of labour markets. As a result, the Fordist mode of regulation in the United States was more socially divided than in Europe.

Suburbanized, affluent and disproportionately white group provided the core, skilled labour force.In inner-urban areas, lived a population of poor and disproportionately black peripheral workers

When linked to the territorial fragmentation characteristic of US urban government, the result was increasing fiscal stress, making it more and more difficult to provide services in inner-urban areas. the crisis of the Fordist mode of regulation was developed relatively early

As a result, the Federal government acted to mitigate some of the worst problems of US Fordism with a series or urban renewal programmes and the enhancement of the social wage directed at poorer groups.

Florida and Jonas argue that black civil rights movement in 1960s were an expression of this crisis

By contrast, explicitly spatial policies had long been a defining part of the Forsdist modes of regulation in Western Europe.

URBAN GOVERNMENTFew regulationist writer have focused on the functions fulfilled by urban government and the local level institutions of the state under the Fordist mode of regulation. This may reflect the genesis of regulation theory during the crisis of Fordism, and the urgency of interpreting current changes, rathen than worrying about the past.

The concept of the Fordist mode of regulation represents one of the richer products of regulation theory.

In most countries in which the Fordist mode of regulation developed, governmental and state institutions operating at the urban scale played a key role in the operation of the Keynesian welfare state.

1. They were often instrumental in providing a part of the social wage: goods and services provided collectively to all or to those unable to afford them privately. Public housing is a pre-eminent example of this. The social wage was central to the Fordist node of regulation, because it places a floor under popular consumption, ensuring that during times of economic difficulty, recession did not turn into slump.This subsidy to the costs of reproducing labour power was one of the ways in which the Fordist mode of regulation ironed out large fluctuatins in the process of capital accumulation by helping to match demand to supply.2. The Fordist mode of regulation involved an increased degree of government planning of economic and social life.

Urban government was one of the primary agencies through which this planning took place. In the United Kingdom, for example, the local government system was the principal forum for land use and urban infrastructural planning.

3. The Fordist mode of regulation involved state intervention to provide vital human and physical infrastructure, such as transportation, environmental improvement, education and health care.

Under Fordism, these were vital to the private sector but were often unprofitable for individual firms to provide, at least on a universal basis.

The organization of state institutions at the local level under Fordism involved the application of bureaucratic principles. Government institutions tended to be hierarchical and centralized, with the performance criteria based on procedure, rather than results.

As Hoggett noted: They tended to be good at providing a relatively narrow range of services in a fairly inflexible and standard way to a large population, which was implicitly assumed to be fairly homogenous.

Some critics have argued that this reflected the dominance of producer interest within the public services sector over the interests of service users. However, while there are clear links with the mass consumption norm of the Fordist regime of accumulation, it is not immediately clear whether these feature of urban government were an essential; part of the Fordist mode of regulation. Arguably, they do reflect some of the organizational principles of the archetypal Fordist firm.

The public sector in fact often played the role of filling-in gaps left by private provision. In other words, it was distinctively different from the private sector, not a straight forward mimic of it, and thus where organizational form is concerned, the causal link remains obscure.

URBAN POLITICAL PROCESSESPolitical processes at the urban scale took a particular form and played a particular role in the Fordist mode of regulation. The role of local elections played a key role, especially in those countries where Fordism was secured through a form of social democratic political settlement. This representative function conferred a degree of political legitimacy on Fordist arrangements

According to regulation theory, the grand compromise of Fordism accorded a degree of political power to certain sections of the working class in exchange for a broad toleration of capitalist relations of production.

This had two political consequences at the urban scale: 1. The organizations of the working class struggled for, and began to be involved in, political decision making. This took place through, for example, certain forms of local corporatism involving trade unions or the development of mass working class-based political parties. The government of many major urban areas, particularly in Western Europe, was, was a result, and frequently dominated by social democratic, socialist or communist politicians. 2. The limits of the compromise circumscribed the boundaries of legitimate political struggle. It was acceptable to fight for labour within the limits of the Fordist deal. However, where urban politicval unrest began to challeng the rules of the game itself, the state was often swift in its retribution. As the mode of retribution, became more intense. Examples include the civil rights movements in the United States, the events of May 1968 in paris and the public sector strickes in the 1970s in Britain. Urban Politics and Potential Post-Fordist Modes of RegulationThe Crisis of Fordism1. Fall in profits2. Growth of structural unemployment3. Decreased pool of finance4. Increased demand of welfare services5. The need of economic restructuring6. Social effects: increases in crime and poverty, shifts of population

According to Jesop, the broadly neo-liberal strategies adopted by most western governments mean that it is likely that in any new post-Fordist mode of regulation, the state would be a Schumpeterian Workfare State (SWS).1. Promote product, process, organizational and market innovation2. Enhance the structural competitiveness of open economics thru supply-side intervention3. Subordinate social policy to the demands of labor market flexibility and structural competitiveness

The Federal Republic of GermanyIntra-Urban Heterogenity - The urban policy in Germany is increasingly a matter of managing the division in urban areas.In BritainUrban Development Corporation Centrally imposed and non-elected agencies In charge with undertaking the regeneration of their areas; prioritizing private investorsConsiderable sums of public funding were channeled into:1. Transport Infrastructure2. Land Reclamation3. Office and Housing Developments4. Environmental Improvements

Debates around the agencies of urban government and governance have focused on two connections with Post-Fordism:1. The links between the public sector organization and new forms of corporate organization

Post-Fordist Organizational Attributes: Reflects management strategies adopted in the private sector An emphasis on the consumer (often called customer care in the British public sector) A stress on flexible forms of organizations More diverse range of relationships with external private & public sector bodies

2. The direct functions of urban governmental organizations within the Schumpeterian Workfare State (SWS)

In Britain, the 1990s saw the establishment by the central government of a large number of quangos at the urban level. Foremost among these are the Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs) in England and Wales and the Local Enterprise Companies in Scotland.They both are: Dominated by appointed, private sector interests Have the responsibility of delivering government schemes and promoting local economic development Center of any move towards SWSTraining and Enterprise Councils (TECs) They are quite efficient at disciplining the unemployed workforce. But, they are not able to provide the entrepreneurial, supply-side innovation. They are workfarist, but not particularly Schumpeterian because the funding is mostly targeted at training schemes, with only very limited resources set aside for generating local entrepreneurial activities.

Post-Fordism: New Mode of RegulationMayer has usefully summarized the changes underway in urban governance across the western capitalist world:1. New forms of economic intervention2. New institutional relations, in which hierarchical local state structures are being replaced by more pluralistic ones

The three English urban areas the archetypes of Fordist Urban Politics A highly skilled labour force reaped the benefits of high wages and increasing levels of service provision in return for increasing productivity. Structures of local politics were in place which were conducive to economic growth, social stability, and increasing standards of collective consumption.

I. SheffieldThe catastrophic decline of the steel industry initially prompted the city council to develop regeneration strategies.Central Government Control The explicitly socialist inflection and class basis of this strategy gave way to one subordinated to private capital.

II. Bracknell, New Town in South East of EnglandFordist growth had been governed by the New Town Development Corporation Social democratic and corporatist. Used public sector finance to develop the local infrastructure.

III. CamdenThe decline of the Fordism was accompanied by the rise of the New Urban Left.Greater London Council Held out hope of an alternative transition from Fordism; one not based so wholeheartedly on dominance of the private sector and central government.

Critiques and Responses

REGULATION THEORY is argued that regulation theory is teleological according to some writers, regulation theory is functionalist regulation theory is sometimes accused of technological determinism others say it overstates the coherence of the mode of regulation

Alain Lipietz Concerned to develop a new version of regulation theory which avoids functionalism and teleology

Cochrane Considers the problems of post-Fordism Discuss and debates about post-Fordism as a technological paradigm Suggested that the analogy between private sector organizational forms and local welfare state may be overstated

FORDISM VS POST FORDISMPOST FORDISM a pattern of industrial organisation in which skilled and trusted labour is used continuously to develop and customise products for small markets. This new era was based on the extensive developments in information technology and microelectronics Companies started using new machines that were multi purpose Producers started emphasising quality over quantity Design and packaging of products were very important Marketing was mostly based on targeting consumers by age, taste and culture rather than by categories of social class. It was also much easier to test new products and ideas in practice because companies were able to produce small amounts. post-Fordism developed to respond to changing market conditions.

FORDISM products and their components were standardized Taylorism or scientific management workers remained stationary and the product flowed past them recognised workers as part of the potential market for the product was a strategy based on cost reduction Workers did not move during their shift, their tasks involved standing next to an assembly line and performing repetitive movements Fordism seemed to be dominated by mass production and consumption Fordist production had control over the market

DISADVANTAGESPOST FORDISM created projects rather than jobs for life. Once the project was finished workers tended to look for a better one, often in a different area. in flexible specialisation the technology is constantly changing.FORDISM it was very difficult to forecast demand. If too little was produced, the company lost market share. On the other hand, if too much was produced compared to the quantity demanded, stock had to be stored at high cost or sold at discount. Demand became more unstable and fragmented.

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