In a sweeping analysis of three seemingly different cases, Eleonora Pasotti explores the emergence of parallel political patterns in Bogota, Naples, and Chicago during the 1980s and 1990s. The story is one of transformation, from patronage politics to what Pasotti terms “brand politics”—candidate-centered systems that emphasize a collective identity and garner the support of voters by distributing public, as opposed to private, goods. In all three cities, mayors emerged who sold voters a new “universal vision of citizenship” (p. 100), and who highlighted their administrative prowess and commitment to fiscal austerity and growth. Conducting detailed research in three different languages, Pasotti is an immensely skilled qualitative scholar with deep knowledge of cities. She conveys political complexity with clarity and insight (making politics in Naples and Bogota understandable, even for a student of American politics). The insights gleaned from her work are sure to affect the study of cities and clientalism in both the American and comparative context.

Until now, scholars of city politics have not jointly considered the decline of particularistic exchange and the emergence of systems reliant on mass communication and collective benefits. To explain this transformation, Pasotti focuses on elite incentives, rather than on the preferences or socioeconomic status of residents. She argues that the confluence of three conditions paves the way for the collapse of clientalism and the rise of branding: direct mayoral election, local fiscal control, and weak parties. Essentially, as mayors need support from larger numbers of voters, become more accountable for policy outcomes, and become more dependent on municipal residents to fund their programs, they need a mechanism of mobilization that is both efficient and scalable. In this setting, the use of mass media and a focus on public goods (broad quality-of-life improvements like transportation networks, functioning systems of law and order, investment in open space, entertainment, and culture) are better political strategies than giving voters jobs or turkeys.

To communicate their vision and inspire support, the three mayors developed “brands” that highlight a collective identity: In Naples, Antonio Bassolino's brand focused on cultural heritage and civic behavior; in Bogota, Antanas Mockus developed a theme of security and civic-mindedness; Chicago's Richard M. Daley emphasized multiculturalism and amenities. To promote his product, each mayor relied on slogans to convey the administration's message and link policy initiatives in voters' minds. Bassolino sought to “Bring Naples Back into Italy” (p. 108); Mockus asked voters to “‘Dare to Dream’ of co-existence” (p. 120); while Chicago was to be the “City That Works Together” (p. 136).

Pasotti provides extensive evidence of each administration's effort to establish the brand and, in so doing, paints a vivid picture of politics on the ground in each city. She argues that all relied heavily on metaphor to communicate with voters. For example, authorities in Naples developed the “adopt-a-monument” program, whereby schoolchildren studied city monuments and then acted as guides during a wildly successful city-sponsored reopening of the historic places. Bogota's government hired mimes to direct traffic in an attempt to inspire drivers to allow pedestrians the right of way. In Chicago, Daley's administration stressed the development of parks and entertainment areas and promoted alternative transportation like biking and walking. Pasotti argues that when “brand mayors” successfully cultivated support, they were granted the opportunity to enact policies that would not have been possible under the old clientalistic systems. The brand mayors in this story all used their flexibility to embark on massive renovations of public space, improved infrastructure, and privatization of government services, while limiting redistribution and municipal payrolls. The author provides numerous examples of tangible benefits associated with these mayoralties and shows that all three men won reelection by large margins.

Although these mayors relied on different themes, their approaches were united by an attempt to change the nature of the political debate and suppress traditional cleavages (like race and class) in their cities. Similar to the Progressive reformers in the United States, brand mayors sought to convince voters that entrenched political divisions were no longer useful or necessary. The Progressives implemented nonpartisan elections to achieve this goal, whereas brand mayors emphasized “universal citizenship”—a purposefully vague and all-encompassing concept. The problem for reformers in both historical settings was that proclaiming the absence of division or conflict did not make it so. In order to generate outcomes that aligned with their visions, brand mayors were forced to centralize political power and limit the voice of city legislatures. Civic engagement collapsed in all three cases. Pasotti devotes her final substantive chapter to this thorny tension—exploring the loss of democratic representation and delegitimization of conflict necessitated by brand politics. In the end, she concludes that in some cases (Chicago and Naples), the reform may have been no better for democracy or policy innovation than the system it replaced. Bogota fared better because extensive powers meant that mayors could achieve their policy goals, whereas single-term limits restricted their ability to institutionalize dominant regimes.

No book can do everything its readers wish, and here, too, there are places where the analysis might have been expanded. For example, Pasotti argues that the longer voters were exposed to the mayors' brands, the greater their acceptance of the values the mayor espoused and the greater the consensus in support of the message. However, the data in support of this conclusion are underwhelming. Without surveys, she must rely on vote returns as expressions of preferences. As a result, we cannot know whether voters supported particular candidates because of association with the message or because of the outcomes that the mayors delivered. Although Pasotti emphasizes the power of emotional motivation, this could be a pure political economy story. Voters offered brand mayors support because they approved of the benefits the mayors delivered—new parks, better transportation, decreased crime rates, and so on—not because they came to share those mayors' values. The reemergence of patronage in Naples supports this assertion, as does the fact that all three mayors suffered losses in popularity when “expectations were unfulfilled” (p. 199). The author's analysis would have been strengthened by a deeper account of the voters' unhappiness and the trade-offs the mayors made. Lurking beneath the veneer of contentment, it appears that some residents were not well served by the system, and a more serious discussion of brand politics' winners and losers would have been useful. Such an analysis would also have helped to clarify why the mayors selected the policy priorities and brands that they did.

A second area for further exploration lies in the application of the theory to other cases. In the conclusion, Pasotti explains that the three factors of direct mayoral election, fiscal control, and weak parties are neither necessary nor sufficient for the collapse of patronage politics or the rise of branding. Indeed, even in Chicago, the factors do not seem to correlate particularly well with either outcome. Examining these relationships in a larger-n analysis will undoubtedly add to our understanding of these processes. All that said, these quibbles should not detract from what is overall a meticulously documented, well-written, convincing account of the emergence of brand politics across three continents.