Government’s role in urbanization: A brief overview

This paper examines the influence of government on urbanization processes. Starting from the urbanization drivers, it develops the main forms of government interventions, which are divided into intra-urban and inter-urban measures and depicted across three main historical periods: mercantilist era, industrial society and knowledge economy. Historical perspectives are supported by relevant examples from the Ancient Rome, the Soviet Union and the contemporary Sweden. The paper concludes that governments have historically played a varied role in promoting urbanization through direct interventions, infrastructure investments, or institutional frameworks. The knowledge economy initially created a wave of re-urbanization and concentration to a few core areas, but over time, ICT’s decentralizing effects became stronger and stronger, also changing the government’s role in these processes.