Comparative analysis of urban and industrial hierarchies of Romanian Towns in 1990

Abstract

Urban and industrial hierarchies can be constructed as synthetic indicators of urbanisation and industrialisation at a particular moment in time. The beginning of 1990 is a significant time to undertake this exercise because of the collapse of the communist system and the start of a transition to a market economy. Industrialisation, the key to economic advance in general and to urbanisation in particular, is studied over four decades to bring out the concentration in large units (considered appopriate for economic efficiency) and the locational emphasis on the county (judget) administrative centres identified in 1968 ad the new territorial base for central planning. These centres, with their surrounding villages, experienced a demographic explosion. The paper examines the relations between the urban and industrial hierarchies at all levels with particular emphasis on the type of industry and the administrative functions.