ABSTRACT
In Chapter 3 it was demonstrated that the intra-urban spatial structure of cities reflects a combination of the specifics of their historical origins and evolution, along with the level of economic development and political ethos of the surrounding society. In all societies, however, the process of urban growth has necessitated a degree of coordinated control to minimize the potentially adverse impacts of conflicting land-uses, and to ensure the efficient functioning of the economic and social life of the city. Historically, the maintenance of the health of the city by the abolition of infectious diseases often precipitated the development of legislative controls and the provision of public utility services such as pure water supplies and efficient sewage disposal systems. The steadily increasing spatial concentration and spread of cities has served to confirm the need for the control and organization of an ever-widening range of services designed to preserve the efficiency and quality of urban life. In most countries, however, the size of the state and its associated bureaucracy is too large for the control of urban areas and the representation of local issues to be undertaken by a central organization. Central governments are concerned primarily with national and international issues and are usually too remote from local issues to be sufficiently responsive to local needs. This provides the basic reason for the development of local government or the local state. Since such organizations have increasingly influenced the details of the processes and patterns of urban growth throughout the twentieth century a consideration of their impact is opportune at this point.
