Politics, always an untouchable topic in polite company, has morphed into an ever-present roadblock to genuine change as governments (on the national level) fall left and right because of their inability to control inflation, tackle ever expanding income inequality, or, grant the public agency in our own affairs.
This sociopolitical stagnation is probably why there's nearly a 1 to 1 split of people who say that they're satisfied with their government, and there's a growing number of people around the world who're receptive to far right parties and their politics because of their willingness to break from the ever-present "business as usual" dogma among the establishment political class.
The biggest losers during our uncertain times has, without a doubt, been the Populist Left. After it appeared that we were primed for control of major economies in the late 2010s with figures like Bernie Sanders in America and Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, the system has successfully swallowed all of our would-be messiahs up and spat them out into reconciliation with the establishment or pariahship for daring to be different.
As it stands right now, everyone, Populist Right or Left, would argue that our social contract is completely broken and in need of a vastly different, more egalitarian model. However, often times half measures are presented to the public by the powers that be in an effort to pacify the public and prolong their own careers.
On the local level, this state of affairs manifests itself in low turnout, low levels of trust among the public towards towards politicians, and the continual decline of communities.
Luckily, as this publication will illustrate, there is a possible, achievable, way out of our collapsing system: Municipalism, which, is the idea that municipal government should be the most important level of government in society. As national and international politics becomes more cutthroat and divisive, Municipalism is poised to show the world what people can accomplish when they're able to control their own affairs without being restricted by federal or state government.
The reason why this publication believes that Municipalism can not only revive the Populist Left, but also rejuvenate Democracy, especially in Metro Detroit, via popular politics, is because municipal consolidation is a favored tool of neoliberal politicians (as was discussed our report on Detroit's Delayed Destiny) who'll seek to dilute the voting power of Radicals within central cities and inner suburbs as a means of preventing any Radical government from establishing itself. In the face of this threat, it would be a catastrophic mistake for Radicals within Metro Detroit to reject the prospect of a consolidated Metropolitan Government on it's face, instead, we should be the most ardent supporters of that idea as we have everything to gain from a consolidated Metro Detroit.
Comprehensive rail based mass transit, a unified Metro Detroit school district, and reindustrialization are all noble goals that would set this region apart from the so called "super star" cities on the coasts, however, before we start daydreaming about what a radical government could achieve, what has to be established is the fact that any agreement to consolidate would need to advance two policies to ensure that Detroit and it's inner suburbs won't be perpetually politically dominated by suburban interests: A green belt/urban growth boundary and a performance-based Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) representation system.
What is a urban growth boundary/green belt? It's a legal restriction regarding the development of housing and other land uses in undeveloped areas like forests and farms. If an urban growth boundary was established as a condition of a merger, it would prevent the suburbs from slowly swallowing up vital green space and cap potentially undue representation that the suburbs would have within a consolidated government in favor of fair and agreeable levels in relation to the city of Detroit and it's inner suburbs.
As for the implementation of a performance-based MMP voting system, it would be one of the most crucial conditions for a merger seeing as it would prevent racial and class-based tensions. Seats would be allocated to cities based on population, so, the city of Detroit and all of it's suburbs, urban or rural, would be encouraged to build more density in order to gain more representation within the consolidated government. Not just that, but it would be the closest thing to a Direct Democracy that would ever be attempted in modern history. It must be stressed, however, that when this publication emphasizes "performance based" MMP, we mean that, instead of party bosses determining who get's what seat based on how loyal they are to party officials, candidates who don't win their seats outright would be elected in order of how well they performed on election day. For example, if a politician gets 45% of the vote in their district, they hold a higher spot on the "list" than another candidate of the same party does who only got 15% of the vote.
This may sound like a brilliant idea for readers/listeners who some might consider "idealistic", but, critics of this publication might begin thinking this thought to themselves:
"It's all good and well to dream up utopian fantasies about the city and it's role in the region, but, Why does the city and region need to establish a Metropolitan Government?"
Black Label Detroit's raison d'être (French for "reason of being") is not just to establish any type of Metropolitan Government just for the hell of it, instead, this publication is in favor of creating what we'd call a "Metropolitan Parliament" for all corners of Metro Detroit. We'd differentiate a Metropolitan Parliament from a regular Metropolitan Government because of a couple things: One, in the event that a merger takes place, Black Label Detroit would argue that the ratio of representation to population *needs to* follow the "cube root law", meaning that there should be a direct correlation between the number of politicians elected to serve the public and the number of people who're directly represented by an individual. Also, the powers that a Metropolitan Parliament should have, this publication would argue, needs to rival the government in Lansing. Since the invention of the American Republic, Many of the "founding fathers" (most famously Thomas Jefferson) structured our government in opposition to urban interests, this idea has manifested into a constitutional principal known as "Dillon's Rule" where municipal governments are viewed as inferior to state governments. If there is no movement to challenge Dillon's rule and begin the process of establishing inherent legal rights for municipalities, then local politics will just devolve into a form that is as ineffective and distrustful as state and national politics already are.
As for the need of establishing a single unified government for Metro Detroit (which, we consider to comprise of the city of Detroit, the city of Windsor, as well as Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and Essex counties), there are an infinitude of good reasons for it: The economic rebound taking place in Detroit needs to be driven by developments that assist in growing the tax base, which is at odds with the current mode of development in the city which only gives tax breaks for the rich that'll last for generations and doesn't directly contribute to the city's finances. Both Detroit and Windsor need a political order that'll tackle their housing crisis by building a new generation of public housing developments that blend affordability with beauty, the principals of place making, and Urbanism. Places like Downriver, Highland Park, Southern Macomb county, and Pontiac need financial assistance that will help them fend off bankruptcy and a toppling of their democratically elected governments via an Emergency Manager. The counties need a legal structure that avoids environmental damages like raw sewage being discharged into shared watersheds and stops unmitigated sprawl from consuming farmlands and forests. Finally, the region as a whole not only needs comprehensive rail based transit as was mentioned before, but also needs to gain the courage to move away from the auto industry towards becoming a prime example of economic diversification that exists anywhere within the "Rust Belt".
Even with this broad overview of what Black Label Detroit wants to see in a Metropolitan Parliament, there is still a lot of things that need to be fleshed out when it comes to proposing such a drastically different form of government. What powers will it have? how will communities be organized under a unified government? Will there still be a mayor? How will they be elected? How do you form a government between two sovereign countries? and whatnot.
These questions will be answered soon, however, that analysis will be a part of a series of reports that will be put behind a paywall, here at Black Label Detroit, we want to be fair to the working masses while still allowing this publication to be self-sustaining. So, with that goal in mind, we see that charging $3 per individual story and $7 for a monthly membership is a sustainable and fair balance to strike between the needs of readers/listeners of this publication and our efforts to educate and signal boost Radical perspectives for the world to see.
Thank you all so much for your interest in a radically changed Metro Detroit, it would be an honor to build it by your side.
Links and Sources:
1. https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2022/12/06/satisfaction-with-democracy-and-political-efficacy-in-advanced-economies-2022/
2. https://ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1475-6765.12710
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_contract
4. https://blacklabeldetroit.blogspot.com/2021/02/detroits-true-destiny-has-been-delayed.html
5. CGP Grey. (2011, September 26). Mixed-Member proportional representation explained [Video]. YouTube.
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cube_root_law#:~:text=The%20cube%20root%20law%20is,of%20the%20population%20being%20represented.
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffersonian_democracy
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Forrest_Dillon#Dillon's_Rule
9. https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2024/09/18/oakland-county-leaders-insist-we-dont-send-raw-sewage-to-macomb/75258939007/
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