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Policies for rural Eastern Europe in transition: The case of Slovakia

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Abstract

After losing much of their demographic vitality under communism, rural areas of Eastern Europe are now handicapped by greatly reduced commuting opportunities and by a lack of foreign investment in the countryside. Although restitution and privatisation has placed much of the land under the control of private farmers, there is a need to modernise agriculture and rural infrastructure generally and also to increase the scope for pluriactivity. At the same time, functional links with the towns must be restored through a growth of employment linked with the central place system. Despite the importance of private enterprise under the conditions of a market economy, the government must take a lead and this paper deals with initiatives taken in rural Slovakia to mobilise the human resources of the countryside. The paper is heavily oriented towards research by the geographers at Nitra who have been much involved with the transformation of their local area. It is evident that while there has been no shortage of ideas, progress has been limited on account of low investment and the tensions associated with a series of three Meciar governments which have dominated Slovak politics through the 1990s.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Katedra Geografie, Fakulta Prirodnych Vied, Universita Konstantina Filozofa, Tr.A. Hlinku 1, 949 74, Nitra, Slovakia

    Vladimir Drgona

  2. Geography Department, The University, Leicester, LE1 7RH, U.K.

    David Turnock

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  1. Vladimir Drgona
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Drgona, V., Turnock, D. Policies for rural Eastern Europe in transition: The case of Slovakia. GeoJournal 50, 235–247 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007149431025

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