ABSTRACT
This chapter offers some basic elements for the design of a new perspective and proposes the multilevel organization of enterprises and the centralization of government are conducive to the insertion of towns as nodes in multiple org anizational and spatial networks. It examines some economic and political effects of verticalization of regional economies resulting from changes in organization of government and enterprise. Analysis of the evolution or transformation of microeconomic organization might be expected to constitute the centerpiece of development theory, but this expectation seems unfounded in reality. Economic activity requires coordination among actors and acting organizations: markets usually are considered the principal mechanism of coordination among producers and consumers. The political integration of a territory into a single system of government and the increasing role of the state in economic development are often singled out as dominant features of development processes. The chapter explores the consequences of these tendencies in terms of processes of rural, urban, and regional change.
