Norman Walzer(ed). Rural Community Economic Development. New York: Praeger, 1991. Pp. 187 with tables, maps, bibliography and index. $49.95 (cloth).

Rural Community Economic Development is a timely collection of essays on the economic characteristics of the rural Midwest. It contains original surveys, provides a review of the economy's impact on public activity and closes with policy recommendations for rural areas.

A popular myth (believed by urban residents and reflected in federal policy) suggests that the economic vitality of the rural Midwest is linked to the health of farm production. While resource-based industries like agriculture, mining and forestry traditionally have formed the economic base of the rural Midwest, this is no longer the case. During the 1970s, manufacturing replaced agriculture as the dominant source of employment, making rural areas of the region as industrialized as urban areas.

In that decade, rural areas in the region with less than one-third of the total population, gained over 50 percent of the national net industrial expansion. Rural revitalization also triggered population growth as people left cities for the country. This was commonly viewed as the start of a turnaround period that would reestablish rural America's importance on the national scene.

The central theme of Walzer's volume is to show the reader that this perception, too, is misleading. Despite the rural gains of the 1970s, a period of similar growth did not recur in the 1980s. The trends in rural areas and small towns during this past decade indicate slow growth, reversing the gains of the previous 10 years. Rural areas in the Midwest are now facing very difficult times. Contributors to the book document and assess the ramifications of this change, dramatic in both its rapidity and magnitude.

In the first four chapters the authors assess demographic and socioeconomic trends. The narrative is supplemented with 27 charts and figures devoted to statistics which help the reader grasp the direction and intensity of economic changes over the past two decades. The material provides a well-balanced treatment of demographics (population and net migration), employment (number of jobs, spatial distribution, rates of change) and industry (manufacturing, commerce, services and agriculture). The authors also attempt to distinguish the underlying causes of these trends, including, for example, short-term cyclical events such as the 1981-82 recession and long-term structural processes affecting regional economies all over the world.

The effect of such trends on the social and political structure normally associated with rural areas is also considered. Three of the 11 chapters discuss the relationships between key public services (local government, education and economic development) and economic growth in these areas.

Because, as one of the contributors notes, "Education is sometimes viewed as a panacea in economic development," the chapter on education and economic growth in rural areas of the region is especially instructive. Conventional wisdom states that a better trained work force makes the local area more appealing to both existing and newly recruited employers. Empirical evidence presented in the book, however, suggests that another significant dynamic must also be at work. At least in rural areas, high school graduation rates and per pupil expenditures are not correlated with economic growth. Indications of a relationship between economic growth and education were not borne out in the 1980s. The author concludes that "primary and secondary schools are awkward tools for fine-tuning labor markets."

Because education does not appear to be the solution to enhancing economic development in the rural Midwest, its communities are still clamoring for answers. Direct surveys of their mayors conducted by the authors show that economic issues remain a high priority. Unfortunately, the municipalities' capacity to undertake economic development is minimal.

Most observers recognize that the rural Midwest economy (or that of any region, for that matter) is extremely complex and not easily manipulated to benefit the community. Nonetheless, the last four chapters suggest corrective actions. These include development of rural leadership, state-level priority setting that targets resources to rural areas and programs to improve the physical and social infrastructure. Proposals are directed to each level of government: local, state and federal.

Most of the policy and program prescriptions that are presented to help rural leaders address their economic problems have already been adopted in Illinois. In instances where these recommendations are not being followed, it's because of the very limitations on local governments cited in earlier chapters of the book.

Overall, Rural Community Economic Development has done an excellent job of surveying key economic and industrial trends in the rural Midwest. The substantial amount of original research lends credence to many of the points the contributors make. The book is accessible to lay readers and scholars alike, and it should be mandatory reading for public and private sector leaders interested in reviving the rural economy of this region.

Eric L Rinehart is manager of the division of program and policy development at the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs where he has written numerous program manuals and policy analyses on economic development.

December 1992/Illinois Issues/33