The Ever-Expanding City

In The Limits of Boundaries: Why City-Regions Cannot Be Self-Governing, Andrew Sancton has written a clear, short, well-researched and logical book. He concludes that, despite becoming increasingly important as the sources of innovation and wealth in our society, “cities in Western liberal democracies will not and cannot be self-governing. Self-government requires that there be a territory delimited by official boundaries. For cities, the boundaries will never be static, will never be acceptable to all, and will always be contested. Boundaries fatally limit the capacity of cities to be self-governing.”

So that’s it for the “cities movement”—the argument is over? We are condemned forever to a governmental geography hopelessly at odds with the country’s social and economic realities? Not so fast, for three reasons: because boundaries, while important, are not the most significant aspect of a city’s powers; because regardless of the difficulties, finding an...