During the past decades, large cities in advanced industrialised count
ries have experienced different demographic and economic trajectories.
Some are continuing to grow in population and jobs; many have experie
nced decline. To account for the process of decline and its consequenc
es, a general model of urban decline is proposed. It specifies the rel
ationship between employment, population, political elites and urban f
iscal revenues. Constructs and propositions are drawn from economic an
d ecological theorems. Empirical evidence is based on literature predo
minantly from Germany and the US.