Publisher's Synopsis
The idea for this book grew out of a session convened at the Eleventh World congress of Sociology and organized by the International Sociological Association at New Delhi in July 1986. The session was part of the programme of the ISA Research Committee on Urban and Regional Development, and its aim was to focus on divergent patterns of restructuring of central-local state relations. Four of the chapters in this volume are considerably revised versions of the papers presented in New Delhi, while the other two chapters were written subsequently, and the introduction and conclusion draw in part on a comparative paper presented at the original session.;The editors hope this collection is focussed, while also allowing contributors to follow their particular interests. To this end authors were asked both to ensure they covered a minimum list of aspects of the subject, and to choose for special treatment a theme which was of particular interest to them. In this way the editor hoped to obtain the material necessary to an adequate comparative understanding of state restructuring processes in the different countries without losing sight of some of their specificities.
