Policies of Regional Development and Planning

This chapter considers the implications of main theoretical frameworks on regional science in terms of regional policy design. First are presented works supporting the hypothesis that economic dynamics will, in the long term, lead to a situation of balanced growth between territories, and thus that public-policy interventions have to stay limited as far as possible. Second we take a look at policies settled in order to respond to the challenges associated with polarization phenomena and the unbalanced nature of growth across territories. Thirdly, we focus on regional policies—today broadly dominant—that seek to stimulate innovation, considered as the primary driver of growth. Then follow an exploration of how the implementation of these policies is organized, initially via observations that show that increasing use is being made of approaches linked to decentralized public intervention, and subsequently with a view to examining the rise of territorial governance processes as means of expressing demands and desires and involving stakeholders and local populations in the definition of local regulations.