The Power of Cities. On the Political Agency of Megacities

This article examines the political agency of megacities as a phenomenon of international political processes in the context of their institutional and systemic transformation. The study seeks to identify the fundamental characteristics of this phenomenon; the principal perspectives through which it is analyzed in political science; the resources and instruments that enable megacities to design and implement strategies of international development; and the major barriers and prospects that shape this activity. Methodologically, the research combines comparative analysis of theoretical concepts and socio-political discourses, a historical-institutional approach and topologizing the empirical cases. Particular attention is devoted to a comparative assessment of the most substantive conceptual frameworks through which political science articulates the role of megacities in international politics. Drawing on empirical evidence, the article explores the opportunities and constraints that megacities face in exerting political influence, along with the mechanisms and tools employed in this process. It argues that the agency of megacities depends on the pool of material (financial and economic) and immaterial (symbolic, network-based and identity-related) resources at their disposal, as well as on the governance models through which these resources are managed. Despite mounting demands from various actors for a stronger formal (legal) recognition of these cities in international politics and for a shift toward a new model of global development, megacities continue to conduct the most substantive aspects of their international political activity through semi-formal and informal channels. At the same time, they are actively developing their international competencies and expanding their repertoire of instruments to strengthen symbolic capital and attract external resources. The article presents an original typology of the instruments of metropolitan political influence, illustrated with empirical material. The author concludes that the political agency of megacities is realized primarily through semi-formal and informal practices that compensate for their limited legal status in international relations. This dynamic contributes to the emergence of a distinct international political space and to new modes of political interaction at the intersection of local, national and global levels.