The mayoral elections in Dhaka and Chittagong have generated two types of interest.

First, many consider that the elections, if held under free and fair conditions, will gauge the current popularity of political parties. Given the anxious political conditions Bangladesh is in now, it is not surprising that the public would like to make sense of the ongoing situation through the lens of the mayoral election. These elections are surely about local governments, but they promise to open a window onto national politics.

Second, and more intriguing, there is considerable outpouring of excitement that the elected mayors would heed professional advice in solving many urban problems that hobble the daily life in cities: traffic congestion, illegal occupation of sidewalks, or irregular garbage collection, to name a few. As the media coverage demonstrates, there is optimism that the new mayors would change course and present effective urban planning strategies to make cities more liveable. Professional seminars, consisting of urban planners, transportation engineers, architects, and urban administrators, have been taking place daily to offer long lists of "things-to-do" for elected mayors. It is a good sign that people are interested in what the mayors could do to make their cities better.

This hope is both utopian and romantic, particularly when seen against the context of the mayoral office's long history of chronic failures to address corruption within the City Corporation and myriad urban dysfunctionalities.

However, the new hope invested in the mayoral office this time around is in itself very significant and emblematic of a number of political and social changes, both local and global.

The reason for the global interest in mayoralty is the rise of the city as the centre of economic growth and, in general, modernity. Cities are the chief drivers of GDP and the venue for all kinds of economic entrepreneurship and cultural experiments. More than 50 percent of the world's population or more than 3.5 billion people now live in cities. Urban areas account for approximately 75 percent of the global GDP. If the city functions well, the national economy thrives. There are numerous studies showing that the economic and social significance of cities has multiplied manifold in the last few decades, and mayors are challenged to deal with increasingly complex issues which previously belonged to much higher political and administrative offices.

Bangladesh is no exception. In 1971, the country's urban population was roughly around 7 percent, which has now skyrocketed to over 30 percent. The social fabric of the country is rapidly changing due to urbanisation. Over half a million people migrate to Dhaka each year in search of job opportunities or a better life, a major shift from the historically agrarian persona of the country. Consider this. The contribution of agriculture to GDP plummeted from 30 percent in 1990 to 20 percent in 2010. On the other hand, the combined GDP contribution of such urban centres as Dhaka and Chittagong is 47 percent. The total urban sector contribution to GDP increased from 37 percent in 1990 to approximately 60 percent in 2010. So, how a city is planned and governed will progressively influence the national economy and politics.

This brings us to the second point: the global rise of the mayors. How a mayor manages, plans, or leads the city has robust national or even international policy implications. Once a largely ceremonial position, the mayor has become a potent force in national politics. Until recently, around the world, the mayoral office was considered a hub of local politics. This is not the case anymore. The mayor can influence or even channel the economic and social trajectory of the country by ensuring the sustainable functionality of the city. Innovative solutions to the city's problems can catapult the mayor to the national stage and international fame.

In If Mayors Ruled the World (2013), the American political theorist Benjamin Barber argues that mayors have more political leverage to grapple with vexing national issues than most of their higher-ranking counterparts in public office. Mayors are local politicians but they can loom large on the national stage by virtue of their unique position to solve problems that are at the centre of the national agenda.

There are plenty of examples of visionary mayors whose bold local policy ideas took on national and international influence. Bogota's mayor Enrique Penalosa (1998-2001) spearheaded a low-cost, bus-based mass transit for the Colombian capital that was replicated in many cities around the world as a successful model. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg reformed the city's ailing school curriculum and spurred a wave of new economic growth by adopting many sustainable urban policies. Desperate to revive his country's moribund economy, Edi Rama, the mayor of Albania's capital Tirana, cleaned up the city's streets and implemented a controversial plan to paint the city buildings in playful colours! The idea was that colour would be a low-cost, nothing-to-lose antidote to the city's collective social lethargy and economic stagnation.

The mayoral candidates in Bangladesh's elections may want to have a deeper understanding of the enlarged scope of mayoralty in the life and future of the city and, consequently, the country and beyond. The traditional view that they are only capable of doing what their political bosses wanted them to do is changing. This transformation will occur in Bangladesh too. An improved traffic management in Dhaka would not only be welcomed by Dhakaites, but also be discussed with much interest in global corporate boardrooms because what the 4 million workers in this city's manufacturing sector produce feed the global supply chain of goods. A liveable Dhaka city is a global investment attraction.

Thus, the conventional wisdom that mayors are merely local politicians no longer holds true. In fact, in Bangladesh, they now have the historic opportunity to lead a bottom-up transformation of national politics and governance. After all, they are at the helm of the country's economic and political nerve centres.

The writer is an associate professor of Architecture and Planning in Washington, DC, and author of Oculus: A Decade of Insights into Bangladesh Affairs (2012).