National Urban Development Strategies in Developing Countries

Harry W. Richardson
Additional contact information
Harry W. Richardson: State University of New York at Albany

Urban Studies, 1981, vol. 18, issue 3, 267-283

Abstract: A national urban development strategy may be important in increasing the welfare of rural as well as urban dwellers. Ten prototype strategies are analyzed: no intervention; policentric primate city region development; leapfrog decentralization within core regions; countermagnets; rural service centers; regional metropolis and subsystem development ; growth centers; development axes; provincial capitals; and secondary cities. The choice among these (including hybrid strategies) depends heavily on country-specific conditions. Alternative approaches to slowing down primacy, a common element of many strategies, are evaluated. Distinctions between the promotion of secondary cities and traditional growth centre policies are discussed. The paper also examines policy instruments such as migration controls and subsidies, infrastructure investments, fiscal locational incentives, administrative decentralization and local fiscal reform. But corrections for the implicit spatial impacts of macro and sectoral policies may be more critical. Finally, the success of a national urban development strategy depends upon long-term political commitment.

Date: 1981
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/00420988120080591 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:18:y:1981:i:3:p:267-283

DOI: 10.1080/00420988120080591

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Urban Studies from Urban Studies Journal Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().