Regional urban politics in Mexico, 1978-1990. The absence of more rigorous conceptual bases

Abstract

This article discusses the absence of more rigorous conceptual and explicit technical bases behind the urban-regional policy of 1978. Two fundamental aspects are discussed: the "spatial" bias and the diffussion of development impulses. As regards the former, the article contends that this point of view still prevails in many cases when this kind of policies are raised, erroneously assuming that spatial equity will automatically lead to social equity As regards the latter, it mentions how this principle is generally the basis for urban-regional strategies arguing that the reason why it has been highly criticized is because of the excessive number of priority areas or cities that are selected and because it is rather impossible to spontaneously set off income redistribution processes.

In addition, the principal strategies of the 1978, 1984, and 1990 development plans or programs are compared, stressing inconsistencies between them. These appertain to a lack of more profound and regionally differentiated diagnoses and of theoretical justifications to link impulse policies with national development goals, a lack of evaluations of the policy itself, and the absence of a defined territorial model which considers the recent locational rationality of productive processes.