Urban System Theory and Urban Policy and Expenditures in England and Wales

In: European journal of political research: official journal of the European Consortium for Political Research, Band 12, Heft 4, S. 357-369

Abstract

Ur systems theory offers a useful & potentially powerful way of analyzing public policy & service expenditures, a research field which, in the past, has lacked in general theory & good empirical results. It is hypothesized that just as cities that play an important role in the national Ur system provide a wide range of specialized & expensive goods & services in the private sector, so also will they tend to spend heavily on a range of public services & amenities. Following recent theoretical developments, the presence of the headquarters of major companies is used as a measure of the importance of English & Welsh cities in the national Ur system, & this measure is related to service expenditures. Analysis of official data for the UK strongly supports the hypothesis & suggests that levels of service expenditure, particularly on what are termed indivisible services, are related to the general characteristics of an Ur system, rather than directly to the concentration of business headquarters. 5 Tables, 39 References. HA.