Urbanization in developing countries: an overview of the economic and policy issues in the 1990s
Pugh, C.
Cities 12(6): 381-398
1995
ISSN/ISBN: 0264-2751 PMID: 12319993 DOI: 10.1016/0264-2751(95)00083-xDocument Number: 388915
Cedric Pugh argues that past efforts to tackle rapid urbanization and its related problems and constraints have been inadequate, and that the rate and scale of likely urbanization over the next couple of decades pose challenges which require very different and innovative approaches. The bulk of his paper describes the evolution of policy over the past 30 years within the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the UN Development Program, and the UN Center for Human Settlements, the leading international lending and development agencies concerned with Third World economic and urban policy issues. Pugh argues that these institutions have learned much from their own experience and that far more flexible and realistic policy changes have been adopted since the late 1980s. They move away from orthodox neoliberalism and give greater attention to social programs, and emphasize public-private partnerships and the creation of an enabling environment rather than direct state involvement. Pugh criticizes a considerable number of academic writers for being unduly ideologically driven in advocating statism along socialist lines or a quasi-Western welfare state. He declares himself an advocate of the New Political Economy, discusses this school of thought, and considers experiences in the Asian NICs, Mexico, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania.