ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses postcolonial regional development policies on the basis of the periodization and from the perspective of each of the some development strategies and ideologies. In focusing on the policies that transformed the whole economic and spatial structures of precolonial Tunisia—and have, therefore, through this process “created” regional disparity—during the French protectorate it has been shown that regional underdevelopment is not, contrary to dominant thinking, a “natural” phenomenon. The political commitment of Tunisian leaders during the “Ben Salah” period to the elimination of regional disparities inherited from the French protectorate was very clearly stated in the first and most important Tunisian planning document, the Perspectives Decennales 1962–1971, published in 1962. The direct consequence of the aggravation of regional disparities during the Nouira period was the continuing flow of the population from the interior to the littoral and even directly abroad.
