Regional policy amid historical shifts and evolving rationales: the case for a Rawlsian turn

The paper explores how recent historical and theoretical developments have come to challenge the legitimacy of regional policy. It reassesses the main rationales underpinning the policy and develops a new ‘procedural’ justification by adapting John Rawls’s theory of justice to a territorial perspective. The Rawlsian perspective is important for restoring the faltering case for regional policy by decoupling its justification from unrealistic expectations of convergence. It helps reconcile the moral and economic imperative to address regional inequalities with the recognition of their persistence and, in some measure, strategic necessity. Finally, the procedural approach reflects the rising relevance of non-economic rationales.