The objective of this investigation is to compare patterns of governance in large cities by focusing on São Paulo, Paris, London and Mexico City in cooperation with research teams from Science Po, Paris, Bartlet School in London and Cide in Mexico. We do not expect to find single or coherent patterns of government and governance in each city (or even among them) but rather different patterns depending on the way a specific policy area combines the interactions of state agents from various levels of authority with the private initiative and groups (legal and illegal) from the civil society, acting within diverse relational and institutional environments. In theoretical terms it means to overcome the classical issue of Who governs? by asking Who governs What? and also Who governs When the State does not? The comparison follows a case study logic investigating the existence of processes and their combination order so as to specify under what conditions the various patterns of governance found are formed and operate.