Policy Review Section
评论英国城市政策演变，指出中央与地方关系紧张、依赖私营部门、缺乏战略规划等问题，并质疑欧洲区域发展基金偏重基础设施而忽视本土经济刺激。
In this Policy Review Section Paul Lawless of Sheffield Polytechnic presents a critical evaluation of British inner-urban policy, in the light of the government's recently announced Action For Cities programme. Following an account of the evolution of this policy field over the past decade and some of the major policy initiatives that have been developed under successive Conservative governments, he highlights certain key underlying themes. In particular, Lawless notes the increasingly strained relationship between central and local government, the emphasis placed on the role of the private sector, the difficulties of achieving co-ordination and defining objectives, the essentially ad hoc approach as opposed to an analytic and strategic perspective and finally the emphasis placed on economic regeneration as the primary focus, with the underlying assumption that benefits will ‘trickle down’ to the most disadvantaged. In the second article Anthony Comfort, of the Directorate General for Research of the European Parliament, presents a personal view of issues surrounding the future development of the European Regional Development Fund, in the context of the introduction of the Single European Act in 1992 and the decision to double the Structural Funds. He questions the continuing emphasis placed on infrastructure, viz. roads, bridges, and drains, as a vehicle of regional development at the expense of various measures to directly stimulate indigenous economic development. Comfort contends that initiatives which have been introduced in recent years at National and European levels to promote small and medium sized enterprises, tourism and training projects in the disadvantaged regions of the Community ought to have a far greater priority within the ERDF.