Introduction
In recent years Bangladesh has achieved rapid economic growth and significant progress in social development despite many other problems. The enviable GDP growth and many other social and environmental successes have gained until now. But still Dhaka is one of the least livable cities in the world. Political economy and urban planning both are complex and people and state oriented. Before discussing about the political economy of urban development process it is necessary to clear the concept of political economy and the economic system of Bangladesh.
Political Economy
Political economy is the study of production and trade and their links with custom, government and law. It is the study and use of how economic theory and methods influence and develop different social and economic systems, such as capitalism, socialism and communism, and it analyzes how public policy is created and implemented. Since various individuals and groups have different interests in how a country or economy is to develop, political economy as a discipline is a complex field, covering a broad array of potentially competing interests (Investopedia).
The term political economy is derived from the Greek polis, meaning ‘city’ or ‘state,’ and oikonomos, meaning ‘one who manages a household or estate.’ Political economy thus can be understood as the study of how a country- the public’s household- is managed or governed, taking into account both political and economic factors (Encyclopedia
From 1890 to 1920, cities in the United States experienced a rapid growth that was unprecedented in years previous. This growth was caused by a number of factors and resulted in both positive and negative consequences. Such factors included, industrialization, technological advances, migration and immigration. Although American cities greatly improved by the expeditious urbanization, these factors also developed numerous challenges including pollution, sanitation problems, a need for environmental reform, political corruption, overcrowding, high crime rates and segregation.
This notion cannot be under-estimated when determining the wealth of the nation and political ideologies plays key role in the economies state. The outline of present political economy on labor have questioned on viability to useful strategies that can address influence of labor in the economy. Spreading available labor lowers available unemployment crisis unlike solving the state of the society in terms of income rather than increasing secondary labor market. Likewise movement of global capital toward low tax jurisdictions results to incredible government attempt to redistribute income on non-labor markets. Therefore, there has to be employed strand of thoughts in political economy with a suitable policy response to any developments in the
Global Political Economy is essentially a study of a political battle between the winners and losers of global economic exchange. In fact, understanding global economy relies on a clear knowledge of the process of political competition. Political power possessed by actors regulates economic activity and in turn this creates the basis for and affects political power. Through, critical analysis of the concept of global political economy it becomes clear that there are three prominent theories that form GPE, mercantilism, economic liberalism and Marxism.
Urbanization and Industrialization brought millions of people to growing cities, these growing cities were ill equipped to deal with growing population rate. While some might argue that Industrialization had primarily positive consequences for society because of a surplus of job opportunities, faster production, and more amenities, it was actually a negative thing for society. Industrialization’s negative effects were angersome working conditions, poor quality of life, and child labor.
With reference to examples, assess the degree to which the level of economic development of a country affects planning and management in urban areas.
Economic systems are organized way in which a state or nation allocates its resources and apportions goods and services in the national community. An economic system is slackly defined as country’s plan for its services, goods produced, and the exact way in which its economic plan is carried out. There are three types of economic systems exist, they are command economy, market economy, and mixed economy. Command economy is also sometimes called planned economy. The expectations of this type of economy is that all major decisions that related to the construction or production, distribution, commodity and service prices are all made by the government. However, in market economy, national and state governments play a
With reference to examples, discuss the degree to which the level od economic development in country affects planning and management in urban areas.
The liberal perspective on political economy is embodied in the discipline of the Western economics (Gilpin, 1987). It emphasizes the individual interests, the freedom and the maximization of economic benefit. Economic
Cities are characterized by the patterns of streets and squares that define their arrangement, a concept that undergoes frequent changes since the establishment of cities 10,000 years ago. There are multitude factors that influence such changes with system of government, values, population size, values, artistic sensibility, building methods, design techniques, paving techniques, military considerations, and transport technology being the main determinants. Medieval architectural designs emphasized on rigid grid forms, that contemporary writers of the history of urban planning and design, assume the presence of grids even in plans where they exist in approximate forms. Absence of grids is often perceived as lack of planning. Nevertheless, it is critical to note that the complex patters of streets in medieval cities were neither random nor chaotic.
A state chooses its economic system by answering three important questions: what goods need to be produced, how will they be produced, and who are they being produced for? The two main economic structures used in the world today are command and market systems. In a command system, everything relating to the economy, such as production, employment, and wages, is controlled by a central planning authority in the government. The government decides what goods will be produced, how they will be priced, and who they will be distributed to. Command economies are designed to benefit the entire population rather than the individual consumer. On the other end of the spectrum is the market economy; government interference is kept to a minimum in this
By definition, Capitalism is an economic system controlled chiefly by individuals and private companies instead of by the government. In this system, individuals and companies own and direct most of the resources used to produce goods and services, including land and other natural resources labor, and “capital”. “Capital” includes factories and equipment and sometimes the money used in businesses (Friedman, 5).
American Capitalism and American Democracy have always gone hand in hand for the entire history of the United States since it's founding, and many say one cannot exist without the other. Many people today commonly associate Capitalism with Democracy when asked about the United States in general. But this statement is inherently flawed; capitalism is based on profits for the few while democracy is based on rights for many. So how can such a contradictory statement be good for the society as a whole? First we must dissect what both Capitalism and Democracy really mean in order to perform a noteworthy analysis.
The definition of political economy is not simple. This essay uses the definitions given by Vincent Mosco and explores its origin in Greek and inspiration from the Classical Political Economy. Apart from the Classical Political Economy, this essay also describes other forms of this approach, such as Critical Political Economy and Neoclassical Political Economy. Latter the characteristics of political economy study are also discussed based on Vincent Mosco’s work in the 1990s.
New Urbanism, a burgeoning genre of architecture and city planning, is a movement that has come about only in the past decade. This movement is a response to the proliferation of conventional suburban development (CSD), the most popular form of suburban expansion that has taken place since World War II. Wrote Robert Steuteville, "Lacking a town center or pedestrian scale, CSD spreads out to consume large areas of countryside even as population grows relatively slowly. Automobile use per capita has soared, because a motor vehicle is required for nearly all human transportation"1. New Urbanism, therefore, represents the converse of this planning ideology. It stresses traditional planning, including multi-purpose zoning,
Economic growth is a necessary but not sufficient condition of economic development. There is no single definition that encompasses all the aspects of economic development. The most comprehensive definition perhaps of economic development is the one given by Todaro: ‘Development is not purely an economic phenomenon but rather a multi – dimensional process involving reorganization and re orientation of the entire economic and social system. Development is a process of improving the quality of all human lives with three equally important aspects. These are: 1.