Growth Coalitions

Growth coalitions are alliances of local business interests, property owners, developers, politicians, media, and sometimes universities and unions that promote economic expansion and real estate development in a city or region, typically because they stand to gain from rising land values and investment. The idea is central to the growth machine thesis advanced by Harvey Molotch in his 1976 essay on the city as a growth machine, which argued that place entrepreneurs compete to attract capital and that growth is treated as a shared local interest even when its costs fall unevenly. John Logan and Harvey Molotch elaborated the theory in Urban Fortunes, distinguishing the exchange value interests of developers from the use value interests of residents. Floyd Hunter's study of community power structure and C. Wright Mills's analysis of elites provide earlier foundations, while Robert Dahl's pluralist account of New Haven offered a contrasting view. Clarence Stone's regime theory examined how governing coalitions form, and David Harvey linked urban entrepreneurialism to capitalism. Critics highlight displacement, gentrification, and environmental costs, while supporters stress jobs and investment. Growth coalitions remain central to research on urban politics, housing, inequality, and local power.