Introduction

Urban and regional studies have undoubtedly garnered increased attention recently in the socialist countries. Characteristic of the past ten to fifteen years have been the production of many prognostic studies and the emergence of complex developmental programs, sometimes described as urbanization strategies, general projects for future settlement, or national settlement policies. We shall focus here on the concept of urbanization strategy, which entails the formulation of general principles and methods for developing a national settlement system. In most cases it also includes selecting main and secondary growth centers, studying data on the anticipated concentration of urban population, and generating principles for handling macroregional problems in particular countries.