The development of institutional capacities in the face of metropolitan coordination challenges in Mexico: the case of Toluca

Abstract

At present, the government has raised diverse strategies to realize coordination processes in the metrópolis; principally, there is observed the reinforcement of the juridical frame, directed to facilitate the intergovernmental association; the incorporation of organisms who promote actions of intermunicipality; and the design of instruments that complement the financing and planeation of projects to the interior of these spaces. Still with these attributes, one distinguishes that the metropolitan areas face the crisis state, especially, because in them there are perceived high levels of segregation, lack of sustainability, risks of low productivity and the increase of problematic urban. If one tries to reach high places standards of well-being, they must go, and even reorient, the implemented coordination strategies, which will be able to improve the quality of life of the population.

In the configuration of integral processes of coordination and with major effectiveness grade in the metropolis, one admits that it is necessary to look that there exists certain grade of complementarity and harmony between the aspects that regulate and delimit the behaviors of the processes of coordination, the agents who are in charge of executing projects and promoting relations stable and structured between the actors involved in the intergovernmental relations, and in the guidelines and resources raised to realize interventions for these spaces.

The present work takes as a target to analyze the components of metropolitan management that exist in Mexico, emphasizing its main characteristics, structures and the form in operate, it with the intention of identifying its scopes and limitations, which will be able to contribute attributes for the development of proposals that promote better governmental practices with the existing structure. The analysis modality is the Metropolitan area of Toluca, considered to be one of the metropolis more representative of the country in the incorporation of strategies of metropolitan coordination. Between the aspects emphasized and that are a part of the  analysis they are: the incorporation of specific organisms for process promotion of coordination; the configuration of a system of planning for the metropolis; the recognition of the possibility of realizing actions of intermunicipality in the juridical frame; and the participation of the metropolis in the project development with resources of the Metropolitan Fund. The perspective that appears in the analysis, sets off of recognizing like the evolution and the status of the metropolitan phenomenon, serves for address the strategies of management and the possibilities of developing actions of public interest for these environments.

The finds show that a dismantling exists between the analyzed components of metropolitan management; from the juridical thing there is not made clear the threshold of performance of the management, which is clear in the nonexistent declaration of faculties and attributions to carry out the metropolitan coordination; on the other hand, a frame institutional weak, that denotes few interference in the decision making of metropolitan; while in the financing instruments and planning there is perceived an insufficient joint of strategies directed to solve the central problems of the metropolis.