Metropolitan Policy for Developing Areas

• Published in: Daedalus (Cambridge, Mass.) Vol. 90; no. 1; pp. 132 - 146
• Main Author: Rodwin, Lloyd
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston American Academy of Arts and Sciences 01.01.1961
• Subjects: Capital expenditures; Capital investments; Cities; Develop/Develops/Developed/ Developing/ Developmental; Developing countries; Economic development; Economic policy; Economic sectors; Economics; Metropolis/Metropolitan/ Metropolises; Metropolitan areas; Urban economics
• ISSN: 0011-5266; 1548-6192

Because growth & the location of growth do not take place in the way we think it should, it is difficult to anticipate econ & pop expansion, & there is a lack of adequate mechanism to control, organize, or encourage desired patterns. In theory, however, Ur scale & pattern could be projected for the nation as a whole, & the economy & soc system adjusted accordingly. Most countries would find the policy of encouraging metropolitan concentration in few regions a desirable one, since meager resources make it impossible to pursue a systematic policy of dispersion. Proponents of decentralization believe that cheap land, lower densities, & shorter distances are a resourcesaving arrangement. However, growth 'appears to have a better chance of becoming self-propelling in the larger cities of 100,000 or more.' An important factor in preventing the pol'ly unacceptable & potentially explosive dualism (between a peasant agriculture & handicrafts sector & a plantation-mining-& mfg sector), which is the present trend in many countries, is gov direction on the location of overhead facilities. It is suggested that regional centers be established to examine possibilities for development in areas under question. Requirements for a nat'l policy on metropolitan development are: (1) a stable gov that seeks to guide Ur development in a manner consistent with econ progress & the SP ideals of the country, (2) some central intelligence by which it can be decided what influence the gov should wield on physical & econ development, & (3) some central power over the principal mechanism for allocating capital. (See SA 1218-B1954). E. Weiman.