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Across Europe, mayors like Veltroni are shaking up the way big cities are run — and as a result are enjoying views national politicians can only dream of. Veltroni's approval ratings, for example, bounce between 60% and 80%, while center-left leader Romano Prodi and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi struggle to reach 50%. Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë consistently tops polls of the French public's favorite elected officials. In Berlin, Klaus Wowereit remains the city's most popular politician, despite tackling a massive debt burden by making dramatic budget cuts. And in Stockholm, Annika Billström has many fans among minority and low-income groups notwithstanding her Social Democratic Party's poor showing. Even London's quarrelsome mayor Ken Livingstone, who's regularly embroiled in spats with the media and was once expelled from his own party, handily won re-election last year despite introducing a controversial $10 congestion charge for cars entering the city center.

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