National Social Policy and the System of Cities: Conflicts and Complementarities.

Anthony H. Pascal

Expert InsightsPublished 1971

National social and urban policies are closely interrelated. Social policy deals with the set of programs financed by public resources to further societal goals. The objectives of these services are to protect the needy and the helpless, to improve consumer information and choices, to upgrade the society in general, to equalize opportunities, and to establish a minimum material standard of living. Urban policy concerns excessive urbanization and the excessive size of the largest metropolitan areas, the resulting drain of population from rural areas, and the attempt by the central government to influence the spatial distribution of population between cities and rural areas. If social and urban policies are to complement each other, the national government should assume more responsibility for the equitable redistribution of wealth by, for example, national taxes to support social programs, equalization of local tax bases, and vigorous encouragement of social and racial integration through planning, regulation, tax, and subsidy. 20 pp.

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Pascal, Anthony H., National Social Policy and the System of Cities: Conflicts and Complementarities. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1971. https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P4692.html.
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