On The Impact Of Market Mechanisms On American Urbanization Process

Urbanization is one important perspective of a nation’s domestic policies. Thisthesis studies the influence and dominant role of market mechanism in the process ofAmerican urbanization through using three important indicators of the market system,namely, industrial specialization, resources centralization and market environment.The analysis warrants with sufficient evidence that the industrial specialization hasinitially driven and further promoted the development of American urbanization, andthe centralization effect is connecting surrounding cities in an area to form colossalurban belts in eastern, middle and western parts of the United States. Besides, thesystem environment of a market, including government policy, city location andresources, cultural norms and international trades, also contributes to the urbanization.Lastly, there is a historical review of the urban policies of American government,showing that it has learned to cooperate with the market mechanism and supplementits counterpart’s weaknesses. The thesis concludes with the interdependentrelationship between the market system and urbanization process. The marketdecides the industrial production and local distribution of cities, and in turn, citiessubstantiate market with necessary materials and labor resources for sustaineddevelopment. It is suggested the government to resign to the predominant positionof the market with no governmental meddling of resources distribution. What’smore, it is important for the government to invest a lot in the construction of publicinfrastructure and services, such as education, medical care, transportation, residencyand environment problems. The practice of American urbanization providesprecious experience to China’s urbanization on the way.