ECONOMIC REGIONS,ADMINISTRATIVE REGIONS AND TERRITORIAL PRODUCTION COMPLEXES

Three types of integral economic regions are distinguished in the USSR: (1) economic regions at various levels, performing strictly economic functions; (2) administrative-economic (or simply administrative regions), which perform both economic functions and the functions of government administration; (3) territorial production complexes, which combine interlinked economic activities within a particular area from the economic-geographic point of view. Because of the differences in functions, there can be no complete identity between economic and administrative regions although their boundaries often coincide. Production complexes are not a substitute for economic regions because the complexes encompass only interlinked activities while economic regions encompass all economic activities. However, production complexes are elements that give rise to both economic and administrative regions. Economic planning in the USSR proceeds along three lines: (a) within the system of economic regions; (b) within the system of administrative regions; (c) within the system of sectoral or branch administrations, which are now being replaced by corporation-type industrial associations.     

PERESTROYKA AND THE ECONOMIC REGION IN STATE MANAGEMENT AND PLANNING

The concept of region-based planning and management bodies, which flourished for a time during Khrushchev's sovnarkhozy reforms, is resurrected, this time under the guise of promoting decentralization and enhancing territorial versus sectoral planning under perestroyka. More precisely, the authors argue for devolution of meaningful planning and management functions to a network of smaller and more numerous economic regions, with “regional economic councils” serving as bodies for planning and coordinating the activities of smaller spatial units within these regions. A scheme describing how such a network might function within the current Soviet bureaucratic structure and economic environment is presented (translated by Jay K. Mitchell, PlanEcon, Inc., Washington, DC 20005).     

ACCOUNTING FOR NEIGHBORING EFFECTS IN MEASURES OF SPATIAL CONCENTRATION*

ABSTRACT A common problem with spatial economic concentration measures based on areal data (e.g., Gini, Herfindhal, entropy, and Ellison‐Glaeser indices) is accounting for the position of regions in space. While they purport to measure spatial clustering, these statistics are confined to calculations within individual areal units. They are insensitive to the proximity of regions or to neighboring effects. Clearly, since spillovers do not recognize areal units, economic clusters may cross regional boundaries. Yet with current measures, any industrial agglomeration that traverses boundaries will be chopped into two or more pieces. Activity in adjacent spatial units is treated in exactly the same way as activity in far‐flung, nonadjacent areas. This paper shows how popular measures of spatial concentration relying on areal data can be modified to account for neighboring effects. With a U.S. application, we also demonstrate that the new instruments we propose are easy to implement and can be valuable in regional analysis.     

THE HISTORY AND THEORY OF EMPIRES

Contemporary histories and theories of empire generally remain within boundaries inspired by varieties of liberalism, and by Marxian theory and its hybrids, in which changing modes of production determine the forms of power, including empire. Liberal theorists and historians of empire generally trace a complex process in which expanding imperial power systems led ultimately to nation‐states, democracy, and market economies. For Marxists and postmodern theorists, the formal aspects of empire remain unimportant compared to the broader workings of modes of production and particularly, the global power of capitalism. Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri use the word “empire” to describe the workings of contemporary capitalism and its myriad forms of power. Whether they rely upon the formal definitions of empire or the Marxian‐postmodern one, theories of empire often descend from modern utopian visions: perhaps the Kantian variety emphasizing a peaceful union of states and collective learning, or the Marxian one, although now taking into account changes in the mode of production and victims unattended to by Marx and Engels. New technologies and communications networks impress all contemporary theorists. Some proclaim the end of modern power systems and empire; others find empire in a new, postmodern form. Nonetheless, there are stubborn continuities with the modern in the very persistence of modern utopias, the dominance of nation‐states, the pursuit of democracy, and the durability of capitalism. Theorists of power and empire have to explain these and other continuities, alongside the disappearance of the more than 400‐year‐old balance‐of‐power system in which imperial powers in the European core finally delivered vast power to the United States and the Soviet Union, and created new technologies that strengthen human connection as well as threaten vast destruction. The question of the power of the United States and its imperial status commands the center of attention.     

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TRENDS IN THE USSR, 1970-1988: PART I (PRODUCTION AND PRODUCTIVITY)

The first of two articles devoted to spatial and temporal trends in economic development and levels of living within the USSR focuses on changes in the pattern of absolute and per capita economic output—national income produced and gross value of industrial output (at the republic and economic regional level, respectively). It then investigates the question of whether divergence or convergence has occurred among republics and economic regions in terms of these indicators. Finally, it assesses patterns of change in labor and capital productivity across Soviet republics.     

区域经济联系测度方法述评

区域研究是地理学的核心之一。区域经济联系测度是区域研究的焦点。在系统总结区域经济联系测度的理论与方法的基础上,本文认为区域经济联系测度一般依循尺度确定-区域划分-区域联系测度的路径;测度区域经济联系的主要指标有可达性、经济影响范围、经济联系强度、经济隶属度等。城市在区域网络中的作用、位置是区域经济联系测度的重点。通过区域经济联系强度的测度,有助于区域和城市发展定位,并指导规划。近年来城市化、信息化、全球化的快速发展对区域经济联系的测度提出了新的挑战,需要综合不同的方法或发展新方法来应对。     

A Quantitative Approach to Designing a System of Economic Regions of the USSR

The authors state the rationale and describe the technique used to devise a system of seven economic macroregions of the USSR for long-term planning purposes. Since broad resource groups determine the specialization of regional complexes and their specialization in the geographical division of labor, the macroregions were constructed on the basis of homogeneity in key resources, such as manpower, fuels, land, water and transport geography. The new regional system preserves the basic division of the USSR into western and eastern economic zones, and reflects the lower labor and transport costs in the west, and the lower natural-resource costs in the east. The seven-region system, which is already being used in the 15-year plan 1975–1990, is expected to help determine optimal directions of regional development depending on whether regions have surpluses or are short of fuels, electric power, land, water or manpower. The new macroregions were designed by consolidating existing basic economic regions and union republics into larger entities, but the republics may be set apart as subzones for more detailed planning purposes.     

A HIERARCHICAL REGIONALIZATION OF RSFSR ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS USING 1966–69 MIGRATION DATA

The coefficients of migration intensity calculated by Rybakovskiy (see preceding article) are used to derive a system of migration regions, which are defined as groups of administrative units with maximum internal interaction and a minimum flow across migration-defining boundaries. The technique is based on the assumption that gross migration flows may provide a reasonably objective basis for determining practical boundaries within a national territory. The technique yields a hierarchy of regionalizations that is then compared with the official Soviet system of major economic regions. None of the 10 major economic regions in their entirety turn out to conform to strong migration components, although one migration cluster, focused on the Northwest, corresponds fairly closely to the official Northwest region. For the rest, administrative units of the Far East and Siberia are grouped together in one migration cluster, as are the southern Volga region and the North Caucasus. Units of the Central [Industrial] region also tend to cluster with those of the Central Chernozem region. However, the most tightly connected migration dyads and triads are found to be wholly contained within the official economic regions, so that the most highly intensive migration streams are found not to cross the boundaries between the official regions. (The study was supported by a grant of the National Science Foundation for work on applications of graph—theoretic clustering and transaction flow analysis in geography and regional science.)     

THE PRESENT STATE AND TASKS OF COMPLEX MAPPING IN THE USSR

Recent developments in the Soviet Union's program of national thematic mapping and regional complex mapping are reviewed. A comprehensive mapping program along these lines, formulated in 1969 by GUGK, the government planning agency, has not been implemented. National thematic maps in the Soviet Union continue to be compiled by individual government agencies without coordination and without uniformity in legend and design, so that comparability is made difficult. The only thematic GUGK maps now being prepared are concerned with two long-term regional development programs in the Soviet Union–the rural development plan for the Nonchernozem zone of the European RSFSR and the construction of the Baykal-Amur Mainline (BAM) railroad in the Soviet Far East. The need for a comprehensive and coordinated program of national thematic maps and regional atlases or map series is once again stressed in connection with economic planning and environmental problems, and a program of continuously updated regional atlases, based on digital data banks, is proposed. Suggestions are also made for the coordination of thematic maps at the international level.     

Economic Policies and Local Development: Some Reflections

Every national system is also a sum of all its regional economies. Then, there are economically differentiated regions within nations. If the foregoing is true, a crucial problem for economic policy is determining which policies should be pursued at the national level (national policies), and on what grounds, and which should instead be developed at the local, regional level (local policies). What policies influence the development and competitiveness of regional economies? This article tries to discuss these issues.The first causal relation to examine is that between national economic policies and the competitiveness of a country's regions. The picture grows even more complex if we consider that there are national policies which have explicitly geographical objectives. Then, why not count on national policies, even locally differentiated ones? Having answered this question this paper addresses the opposite issue: why should we not view the entirety, or at least the largest part, of national economic policy--and development policies in particular--as simply the sum of local economic policies? How can one distinguish between the local effects of national economic policies and those of local development policies? A further problem is providing a satisfactory definition of regions (i.e. the areas in which policies are to be implemented) and of their boundaries.     

EVALUATION OF SPATIAL DIFFERENCES IN THE SETTING OF NORMATIVE GUIDELINES FOR PLANNING AND CONSTRUCTION

Official normative guidelines used in the Soviet Union in the design, planning and construction of economic development projects are not adequately differentiated to reflect regional differences in physical and socio-economic conditions. The guidelines are closely tied in with the country's administrative structure, and tend to be spatially more specific in areas where the administrative structure is fine-meshed, and less specific where the structure if wide-meshed. Accordingly, there is a particularly urgent need for enhancing the regional reliability of normative documents in the Asian part of the Soviet Union, especially Siberia, where normative data often apply to vast areas with widely differing physical and socio-economic settings. A set of geographical coefficients is proposed to correct existing normative indicators. Illustrative examples are given.     

The ‘R’ in BRICs: is Russia an emerging power?

The concept of emerging powers presupposes several features shared by the states in question including regional preponderance, aspiration to a global role and the contesting of US unipolarity. This article assesses the role of Russia as an emerging power. It asks how Russians interpret the international system, what kind of system they would prefer, what they are trying to do in the current system and why, and how these considerations affect their relations with the US hegemony, other centres of power such as the EU, and other emerging powers. The author discusses the structural, liberal and regional interpretations of state behaviour and how they relate to the Russian model, arguing that Russia's policy is strongly affected by its domestic economic and political context. Russia is highly responsive to trends in the former Soviet Union and regions it perceives to be in its own space (e.g. EU and NATO Europe and north-east Asia). In the larger international system, Russia's approach is a mix of partnership or acquiescence on matters of vital interest to the hegemonic power, and more competitive behaviour on issues deemed central to Russian but peripheral to US interests. The article concludes that Russia is not an emerging power in the conventional sense. Its foreign policy is dominated by efforts to reverse the decline of the 1980s and 1990s. This entails fostering international conditions conducive to allowing reconsolidation without external hindrance. Its second major priority is regional: to restore Russian influence over the former Soviet states. In essence, Russian policy aims to limit further losses and promote conditions that will allow it to re-emerge as a great power.     

PREDICTION OF TRANSPORT-ECONOMIC LINKAGES IN THE USSR

Possible changes in production patterns of basic Soviet industries and the resulting interregional linkages and freight flows are projected over the next 25 to 30 years. Interregional energy flows are expected to be limited largely to oil and gas as well as power transmission at extra high voltages. Steam-coal movements will be restricted to the limits of particular economic regions, and coking-coal movements will be reduced as a result of technological changes in the iron and steel industry (electric steels, direct conversion, peat-based metallurgy). In general, the share of semifinished and finished goods is expected to increase and that of raw materials and fuels to decline in interregional hauls. The likely new flow patterns are examined for the Soviet Union's principal transport corridors.     

A Typology of Regional Production Complexes

Soviet regional production complexes at the level of major economic regions are classified on the basis of a combination of two criteria: (a) regional specialization in terms of the energy-and-industry cycles proposed by N. N. Kolosovskiy (coke-based metallurgy, energy-intensive industries, etc.); (b) the developmental stage of the regional economy, in terms of five developmental phases (pioneering, the formation of industrial nodes, the formation of industrial cycles, a reconstruction phase, and achievement of a complex structure). The typological classification is viewed as a possible basis for more detailed breakdowns below the level of major economic regions.     

我国的区域经济地理研究与区域经济地理学

区域经济地理学在我国是一个受到特别重视的地理学的一个研究方向,文章讨论了西方和苏联地理学中区域经济地理学的发展情况,和在我国得到特别发展的条件,认为与中国的社会经济体制、改革开放以后地方经济的发展有特别的关系。文章对区域经济地理学学科的发展做了回顾,列举了这个学科在基础理论上的有代表性的成果,认为它已经形成了自己的理论体系,即包括劳动地域分工、经济地域运动和中国社会主义市场经济条件下经济区域化等。文章认为,我国丰富的区域经济生活实践将推动学科进一步发展,并提出了学科在跨学科方向上的发展趋势。     

URBANIZATION IN THE USSR: PROBLEMS OF SPATIAL DIFFERENTIATION

The process of formation of settlement systems “in the USSR is conceptualized as proceeding at eight levels of a hierarchy corresponding to the system of economic regions, from a national system down to rayon-level systems. An important element in the present process of urbanization is the formation of urban agglomerations. The fact that these urban entities still lack juridical or even statistical status deprives urban and economic planners of a valuable data base for planning purposes so that the agglomerations often evolve in undesirable, uncoordinated ways. Greater attention needs to be given to the study of the internal structure of urban entities, a field neglected by Soviet population geographers. An undesirable tendency in Soviet agglomerations is to aim at continuously built-up territory, thus converting agglomerations into traditional compact cities, instead of making provision for open spaces for use in agriculture and forestry, recreation and communications.     

CONCEPT FOR PRESERVING AND RESTORING THE ARAL SEA AND NORMALIZING THE ECOLOGICAL,PUBLIC HEALTH,AND SOCIOECONOMIC SITUATION IN THE ARAL REGION

The government committee charged by the former USSR Supreme Soviet with formulating measures for resolving the Aral Sea crisis presents a list of basic recommendations for ameliorating public health and economic problems in the Aral Region and reversing the decline of the sea. Considerable emphasis is placed on basic structural change in the regional economy and water budget. A staged procedure is outlined for the gradual transformation of the water balance and economic structure while maintaining the Aral Sea as a single (unified) water body.     

SOCIALIST FEDERALISM AND SPATIAL EQUITY: REVIEW OF A DISCUSSION

The proceedings of a wide-ranging discussion at the Institute of Geography, Moscow on current political and territorial issues in the USSR are summarized by one of its participants. The key thrust of the discussion centered on the need to find ways of increasing the involvement of Soviet political and other geographers in the analysis of critical questions of Soviet federalism: the incongruence of political-administrative boundaries with ethnic and economic regions; the search for a viable division of authority among Moscow, the republics, and local soviets; mitigation of growing regional inequality engendered by perestroyka and regional khozraschet (translated by Jay K. Mitchell, PlanEcon, Inc., Washington, DC 20005).     

POPULATION GEOGRAPHY AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC PLANNING

Population geographers are urged to get involved in the program of socio-economic planning that is expected to supplement the present economic planning process in the Soviet Union. So far socio-economic plans have been drawn up only for a few large cities like Moscow, Leningrad and Sverdlovsk. In general, there is a need for integrating the social planning process with purely economic planning, and to supplement the present sectoral planning system with an integrated system of spatial planning entities. At the present time, city and regional plans are derived by simply collating sectoral data at the city and regional level rather than by a separate integrated spatial planning procedure. A system of intra-oblast regions, or okrugs, numbering perhaps 500 or more, is recommended as a new level suitable both for government administration and for socio-economic planning.     

SOVIET REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY AND THE 10th FIVE-YEAR PLAN

The Guidelines for the 10th Five-Year Plan (1976–80) are assessed in terms of their suggestions and probable implications for Soviet regional development policy. The new plan is examined both for evidence of regional concerns in specific economic and social programs as well as for more general indications of regional development philosophy and strategy. The current plan is then compared with previous plans for evidence of shifts in regional development policy. Finally the regional dimensions of Soviet development are considered in light of more general ideas of regional development and modernization.