Regional Planning in Central Europe: Austria, the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic, and Switzerland

Abstract

The paper provides a systematic comparison of regional planning in four Central European nations. Despite different political ideologies and institutional arrangements for regional planning, it is argued that the countries' regional problems and regional planning goals, strategies, and measures have a number of similarities. An idealized regional planning ‘system’ is used to review the planning experience of each nation and to compare and contrast it to the others.

Regional Entrepreneurial Heritage in a Socialist and a Postsocialist Economy

“…A high degree of industrialization, especially a high share of “traditional” industries (here, textiles, light industries, and engineering), typically indicates that regions had been shaped by entrepreneurship in presocialist times. An increase in these shares in the GDR was unlikely, since such a socialist regional planning policy was in nearly all cases at the cost of traditional industries (Berentsen ; Wild ).…”

“…shares in the GDR was unlikely, since such a socialist regional planning policy was in nearly all cases at the cost of traditional industries (Berentsen 1985;Wild 1992).…”

A rural laboratory in the Austrian alm—Tracing the contingent processes fostering social innovation at the local level

“…In the period between 1945 and 1960, several institutions, ministries and programmes at the federal and provincial levels in Austria became involved in regional planning (Berentsen, 1985) with the aim of decentralised economic growth, reduction of inequalities and countering out‐migration and out‐commuting from rural regions (Berentsen, 1978). The regional policies of the 1960s and 1970s primarily aimed at economic growth and the reduction of centre‐periphery disparities through the modernisation and industrialisation of underdeveloped rural regions.…”