Reviews Regional development: problems and policies in Eastern and Western Europe edited by G Demko;

The book has thirteen chapters grouped in five sections. Its principal concerns are the regional economic and social inequalities found in Eastern and Western Europe and the policies adopted by governments to eradicate them. Although the policies vary from country to country, the problems they set out to resolve were seen as "in large measure independent of ideology and socio-political system " (preface). The first part contains a successful summary by Richardson of the four main theories on regional development in Western market economies: the neoclassical and cumulative causation models, the neo-Marxist uneven development thesis and Holland's 'mesoeconomic power' variant of the latter. Unfortunately, a parallel paper on theoretical aspects of regional development in East European countries "could not be arranged". This is to be regretted since some of the chapters on regional issues in socialist states, although in the main highly descriptive, offered perceptive interpretive insights. Part two compares regional development trends in 'both Europes ' and concludes that, whereas regional policies in Western countries focus on a particular region or a specific range of problems, in the socialist states, regional development policies constitute part of an overal