ABSTRACT
One objective of the European Union has always been to enable poorer regions to catch up, so regional inequality is a test of the effectiveness of European policies and the European social model (ESM). Indeed, the term 'cohesion' first appears in European policy in relation to inequality between rich and poor areas of Europe. The rationale for regionalism is partly the extent of spatial inequality within member states. Comparing regional differences in Italy and Britain shows there are two different types of poor areas: the rural regions that never industrialised at all and those regions which industrialised in the nineteenth century and have now been left behind. This chapter discusses four types of region: traditional rural, old industrial, growth pole, and world city forms. Today it is assumed that economic growth will occur in these regions through the privatisation of state enterprises and the deregulation of the labour market, rather than through European funding on social and physical infrastructure.
