Mezei István: Urban development in Slovakia (Pécs-Somorja, 2010)
4. Towns in Slovakia after 1993
Towns in Slovakia after 1993 In 24 districts the proportion of the urban population is higher than 50%. This category includes large towns like Prešov, Žilina, Nitra, Trnava, Prievidza and Trenčín. However, this category also includes a contradictory example, because Medzilaborce, with its 6,616 inhabitants, belongs here only because its district has a low population. The proportion of town-dwellers is higher than 40% in 17 districts. They also include both big towns like Nové Zámky (62,641), Levice (55,525) or Michalovce (53,970) and small towns, like Krupina with its 9,354 inhabitants. In 18 districts the proportion of the urban population is between 12% and 40%. This category includes the Dunajská Streda district with its large area and 44,894 townspeople. Besides the district seat of Dunajská Streda, Šamorín and Veľký Meder also belong to this category and in this way add to the urban population. The districts that can be regarded as internal peripheries and where the small size of the town also makes it difficult for the district to strengthen its economy, like the Brezno, Zlaté Moravce and Gelnica districts, also belong to this group. At some other places, an oversized district worsens the problems of the small town, like in Rožňava or the above-mentioned Dunajská Streda. For Veľký Krtíš and Rožňava, their borderland location is also a limiting factor. The districts along the Polish border also have to cope with the same difficulties, e.g. Námestovo, Kežmarok, Stará Ľubovňa, Sabinov, or Sobrance district along the Ukrainian border. The sparse distribution of towns in the district in the environs of Košice is surely compensated for by the presence of the large city nearby. Commuting is the solution for the people living here to meet their needs concerning jobs and services. 4. 1 The effect of geopolitics on the urban network Slovakia, as one of the youngest states of Europe, has to act to become have itself accepted by other countries and adjust itself to its farther and closer neighbours. A higher level of this dual, inward and outward, compliance is geopolitics. At present, geopolitics requires that the independent Slovakia should carry out an apparently simple task. It has to accept the trans-Atlantic establishment and has to enforce its principles and regulations with the means of power available within the country. The country that meets the requirements of the trans-Atlantic circle will be the member of this political, social and economic, in one word, power bloc. Any country that does not meet them will be excluded, or, in a worse case, it will be 94
