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Purpose – The focus of this chapter is to establish a blueprint for effective Black leadership without compromising the interests of other racial and ethnic groups. A uniform approach has not been utilized to accomplish the “dual agenda” of representing majority and minority interests simultaneously, although most of our urban cities now consist of a plurality of Black, Latino, Asian, and Caucasian voters.Design/methodology/approach – Using the city of Buffalo and Mayor Brown as a case study, a content analysis was conducted on Mayor Brown’s upcoming career in politics as well as close coverage of his election and reelection bids. A descriptive analysis was also conducted on the election of first-time Black mayors in order to identify the style of leadership that is appropriate for a particular era.Findings – Some of the findings of this research confirmed that a city’s size, its predominant racial and ethnic makeup, the city’s regional location, the era that they were elected in, their professional experience, and prior elected positions continue to be influential factors in electing Black mayors. In each era however, there was a particular style of leadership that became a necessary element in electing and reelecting a Black mayor.Research limitations/implications – While this research relied mostly on a content analysis of Mayor Brown’s leadership and first-time Black mayors, it would have been better served if an in-depth interview was conducted with Mayor Brown himself. It is imperative for research that seeks to establish a blueprint to speak to the primary agents of that office as well as community leaders for an objective perspective.Practical implications – Aspiring politicians who wish to lead their cities will need to have a consistent plan that speaks to coalition building in order to solidify a diverse base of supporters. Also important is to be able to elect more Black mayors in a particular city that has been exposed to Black mayoral leadership shortly thereafter to build upon previous accomplishments.Originality/value – This chapter fulfills the need to accomplish the “dual agenda” of representing majority and minority interests simultaneously.

The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of the choices and difficulties at a city level that faced public leaders who were trying to pursue economic regeneration while at the same time coping with austerity policies introduced by national government.

We are using a case study approach to assess both the type of strategic leadership being offered and the public governance issues faced by Liverpool City.

In terms of leadership, the mayor fitted what we describe in the paper as the pragmatic type of strategic leader (long-term perspective providing foresight, and inclusiveness in formulating strategy and plans). The directly elected mayoral system seemed to have a number of advantages, perhaps the key one being that the mayor, acted for the entire city, rather than being the leader of the city council as he was before. New channels of social dialogue had been opened up, especially with the business community. The major difficulties in governance were the overstretched entrepreneurial and strategic capacity of the centre of the council and a lack of coherence in terms of multi-level governance.

The approach to public leadership in Liverpool represents a major break from the past; it was a widening of political inclusiveness to embrace people with a range of political perspectives. It was also a major break from the past in terms of building good relations between public leaders and business leaders. The prize was economic regeneration to create a better platform for social and economic inclusiveness.

This chapter analyses the financial resilience pattern presented by four Brazilian municipalities at the beginning of a serious revenue downturn, which was initiated at the central government as a combination of economic and political crises. The crisis occurred during an on-going public financial management reform and attempts to imbricate IPSAS-oriented accrual-accounting policies in a dominant cash-based budgeting culture. Thus, contrasting those patterns with other democracies depicted in this book, we aim to contribute to the comparative literature on financial resilience under austerity periods. We interviewed secretaries of finance, department directors and accountants of each city hall and businessmen from the four municipalities. Cases were selected among 100,000-350,000 inhabitants’ municipalities from one of the three most industrialised brazilian states, varying the cases according to their mean and volatility budgetary surplus over the 10 years before the beginning of the analysed crises. All cases presented no anticipatory capacity or long-term strategic planning. Their usual responses are short-term oriented, such as supplier payments postponement, increasing tax collection or cutting expenditures, rather than based on their weak transformative capacities. Despite the fatalistic and very ineffective reactive behaviours observed in two cases, a proactive mayor, supported by consulting firms, enhanced the responses effectiveness of the two remaining cases. Hence, mayor leadership might be a fruitful feature to be investigated by future studies.

Purpose – To examine how Black mayors in majority-White cities successfully incorporate the interests of African-Americans into their overall agenda for the city and the said effectiveness of this strategy electorally.Design/methodology/approach – Utilizing data from elite interviews and local newspaper articles, we apply the theory of targeted universalism to the governing approach of Jack Ford.Findings – Mayors of color often come into office with the dual responsibility of being an advocate for their respective racial group and a leader for the city as a whole. Jack Ford, the first African-American to be elected as mayor in Toledo, Ohio, took this challenge on gladly, but with mixed success. We find that Jack Ford used his powers as mayor to improve social conditions for Blacks in Toledo, yet also faced challenges in trying to better their economic opportunities. Moreover, he failed to parlay these particularistic efforts into a second electoral victory. In this case, a targeted universalistic policy approach to advancing Black interests had limited effectiveness. The single mayoral term of Jack Ford suggests that Black executives must walk a fine line between their (assumed or expected) racial empowerment role and their duty to advance the various interests that exist among residents of their city. Hence, we find that in order to have lasting electoral success Black mayors must be acutely aware of what is expected of them by the various constituencies they serve and govern accordingly.Research limitations/implications – Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.Practical implications – The chapter includes implications for the development of an effecting Black mayoral governing strategy wherein the mayor can successfully advocate for the advancement of black interests in majority-White cities with specific policy proposals and programmatic developments.Originality/value – This chapter fulfills an identified need to study the governance of Black mayors in medium-sized cities and their representation of Black interests in the majority White municipal context.

Since decentralization gives local levels of government greater autonomy to make their own decisions, it is important to have leaders who can acquit themselves well and lead their jurisdictions well in decision-making and implementation. In some instances decentralization is associated with perceptions of reduced government performance and increased corruption. When leaders fail, extensive criticism is frequently voiced against government and bureaucracies, often involving complaints of rigid red-tape, inefficiency, corruption, lack of flexibility and negative attitudes toward change, restricting social progress, and insufficiently ensuring economic growth. Still, we find evidence that good performance is possible in the matter of decentralization. One such instance is found in Indonesia’s city, Surabaya. During the past decade, the city transformed itself from a hot and dry city into a green, cool, and comfortable place to live that is frequently acknowledged for its government performance. The mayor’s personal leadership style is popularly described as leading with integrity and with the heart. With integrity, she has made anti-corruption a major tenet of her leadership goals. Meanwhile, in regard to leading with the heart, she has embraced “feminine” leadership styles that emphasizes cooperation, participation by many, information sharing, reliance on interpersonal skills, and sensitivity to other’s feelings and perspectives. She also adopts “motherly” and “parental” approaches such as when admonishing others. These styles are consistent with the modern leadership theory around collaborative governance and what is expected or believed to be appropriate for leaders in Indonesia.

Purpose – This chapter evaluates the shift in black voter support from Mayor Adrian Fenty to Mayor Vincent Gray in the 2010 DC mayoral election. The complexities of new black leadership are used as a theoretical framework for understanding the salience of gentrification, crossover racial appeal, campaign tactics, and policy implementation in the mayoral transition from one black candidate to another.Design/methodology/approach – This study used polling data from The Washington Post one month prior to the 2010 DC Democratic primary (The Washington Post, 2010). Using a sample of 630 respondents, multinomial logistic regression was used to measure the extent to which substantive policy positions, racial crossover appeal, and/or personal traits factor into voter preferences.Findings – The results reveal that a combination of personal, racial, and substantive factors contributed to Adrian Fenty’s defeat in 2010. The implications suggest a reexamination of the significance of symbolic representation in voter candidate preferences and the shifting complexity of black leadership in the procurement of black substantive representation.Originality/value – This chapter captures the transitional nature of black leadership in order to distinguish viable strategies for blacks to secure both elected office and black empowerment, while offering a more nuanced approach to analyzing the changing nature of the black voting calculus in the United States.