Question

Question 1.
i)Explain Friedman's stage theory of regional development. How is it different from sector theory of regional development?
ii)Differentiate between Weber's Theory of Industrial Location and Florence's Theory of Industrial Location.
iii)Explain the role of agriculture in regional economic growth. Has the role been the transformation trajectory in the case of Zambia?

Answer 1

ANSWER

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FRIEDMAN STAGE THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT:

In stage theory of regional development the American well-known economist Friedman explains about how the development took places in a specified area. Actually in this theory he divides the are into four to explain the developments and progress had undergone in that area. In order to explain this regional development he explains about the four regions in the selected area and this four regions are; Core region, Upward transition region, Resource frontier region and the Downward transition region. The Core region is the region in which the the majority progress and the development took place, usually the metropolitan centres. The Upward transition region flourish over the small centres and the Resource frontier region is the newly emerging centres. Finally the downward transition region indicates the region with the low development and production took place. This model is usually Referred as Core-periphery model.

SECTOR THEORY OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The Sector theory of regional development mainly concentrates and centres on the various sectors in an economy and how the regional development took place in accordance with these sectors. In sector theory the basic idea is that in the stages of regional development at the initial stage, the agricultural production will be the sovereign and with the development in Transportation and smooth running the other sectors like the industrial sectors and the service sectors will also contribute to their role.The economy will become the self sufficient at the beginning and they first specialize in the agricultural industries. And further the economy or the industries will concentrate on the export production. This is the sector theory of regional development.

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ALFRED WEBER'S THEORY OF INDUSTRIAL LOCATION

In his theory of industrial location Weber the central idea put forward by him is that the location of the industry must be Chosen at a place where the transportation cost of both the raw materials and the final products will be at the minimum. He gives the idea of two cases in production; the first one is that there will be a reduction in the weight of final product than the raw materials and the second case in which there will be an increase in the weight of the final product by the addition of the raw materials in the production process.

FLORENCE'S THEORY OF INDUSTRIAL LOCATION

In the theory of Industrial of location by Florence he gives more importance to the relationship of the industry with the population occupied in an area. And he gives less importance to the relationship between the location area and the industry. In order to explain the idea of choosing location he coined two terms; (a) Location factor: which indicates the percentage of the workers in this industry when compared with the workers in all industries (b) Co-efficient of localization: which select certain sectors in accordance with the tendency of some certain sectors in the selected economy.

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There is no doubt in the fact that agricultural production has a very significant and has a exceptional role in the development of nation. We have the evidence for such a development in many terms. The progress and growth in agriculture is the basis of development for many of the nations. And it we have seen this trend in USA and UK. In England the agricultural revolution is the most important step in the development of the nation.

But when we analyze this fact through out the world, it will be true for a majority of the countries. But there exists some difference in this general trend. For example let us take the example of Zambia, an African country. But here the fact is that agriculture contributes less to the country than the other sectors. Here the agricultural sector contribute 22 percentage to the GDP where as the industrial sector contribute more than the 25 percentage to the GDP. The mining has also a very great significance in the economy of the nation. The export of the copper to the other countries is an important means of aiding and abetting the wealth system of the Zambia.