Today it seems fairly obvious to say that urban government has become more authoritarian – there is vastly increased levels of surveillance, violent and militarised policing of dissent and the targeting of migrant, queer and ethnic minority communities. Building on the previous episode on ‘authoritarian populism’, the panel discussion focuses on the ‘authoritarian practices’ of urban governments. We discuss issues of scale i.e. the relationship between central and municipal government and global capital flows drawing on research on Turkey, Mexico, India, Russia and Eastern Europe. We cover overtly draconian practices such as violent crackdowns on protestors and the more subtle ‘sabotaging’ of accountability for key sections of capital – developers, big tech – and national infrastructure and whether this takes us beyond the era of neoliberal urban governance.