The essay explores why and when metropolitan governments collaborate beyond the assumptions of the Institutional Collective Action (ICA) framework. It claims that metropolitan governments not only create collaborative arrangements after comparing their costs and benefits, or when spontaneously their agendas get aligned. This article argues that the success of metropolitan interlocal collaboration also rests on the proclivity to collaboration of independent local governments’ institutional structures, which, in turn, depends on how local governments and their management capabilities have been shaped and evolved, both individually and comparatively with neighboring governments. Additionally, the article classifies and explains four basic models of metropolitan collaborative arrangements.

This paper updates and extends the Political Market Framework (PMF) by integrating elements of interest groups and political market theory with policy entrepreneurs’ (PEs) roles in explaining the patterns of urban infrastructure construction. The prominent role of PEs is observed through a grounded analysis of two large infrastructure projects in Mexico City. A comparative study of the cases suggests that: (1) The agency of PEs in political markets is central to explaining the construction of urban infrastructure; (2) PEs contribute to the definition of pro-growth or anti-growth coalitions and the definition of public problems; (3) the legitimacy of PEs is grounded in their political or technical reputation, or both; (4) the appropriate use of political institutions requires that PEs know how to use electoral timing strategically; and (5) the role of PEs seems to be better understood within a bounded analysis framework, such as the political markets approach.

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El artículo discute los principales desafíos que las ciudades mexicanas enfrentan para promover políticas prodensificación. Después de describir el acelerado proceso de urbanización del país, se argumenta cómo las políticas prodensificación pueden contribuir a combatir el cambio climático. La principal aportación del artículo es un modelo de clasificación de las ciudades en función de su potencial para generar políticas prodensificación. Tal clasificación se propone con base en el grado de autonomía local y la capacidad de las urbes para crear una arquitectura institucional apropiada. Esta clasificación es un punto de partida para un diagnóstico que permita intervenciones de política certeras, de acuerdo con la realidad de cada urbe. El artículo concluye con algunas observaciones y recomendaciones para que los gobiernos locales de México fortalezcan su agenda de sostenibilidad urbana y adquieran mejores herramientas para la gestión exitosa de sus políticas prodensificación.