Regional Disparities — Reasons Enough to Run a Cohesion-Oriented Spatial Policy?

Abstract

In the context of the Federal Republic of Germany, the creation of equal living conditions has been one of the major goals and targets of spatial development and policy for decades. In the Spatial Policy LawFederal Regional Planning Act of 1965 it is set as the major goal. Nowadays, it is included as an overarching aim in a revised version, namely, as sustainable development. Recently, however, an intensive public discussion has arisen about the question of whether it still makes sense to follow the target of equal living conditions. Oddly enough, this started as a result of an interview by the president of the Federal Republic of Germany, Horst Köhler¹, who is a trained economist. He raised the question of whether it was good for economic and, in the end, for political reasons, to maintain a similar infrastructure in every region, which means in very sparsely populated areas as well as in agglomerations, or whether it was good even to try to reach this level.

The president of the Federal Government of Germany, Horst Köhler. Interview with the journal Focus, Issue 38, 13 September 2004