Persistent territorial disparities across regions suggest that economic and geographic explanations alone cannot account for uneven development outcomes. This paper advances a theoretical framework that conceptualises territorial inequality as a governance-produced outcome, shaped by institutional configurations that distribute power, voice, and decision-making authority across space. The study introduces bottom-up capacity as an analytical criterion to assess how territorial governance models enable or constrain citizen agency, grassroots initiatives, and territorially balanced development. Four ideal-typical governance models—centralised, decentralised, collaborative, and participatory—are comparatively evaluated in terms of their institutional openness, mechanisms of power devolution, and potential to redirect development toward marginalised territories. The paper argues that governance models function as structural filters shaping whose knowledge is recognised, where resources flow, and which territorial priorities are legitimised. By linking governance design to spatial justice and territorial cohesion, the framework provides a novel conceptual lens for understanding the governance roots of spatial inequality and establishes an agenda for future empirical research on bottom-up territorial development.
Mitrovic et al. (Thu,) studied this question.