The genesis of scientific ideas about regional policy: A critical analysis of theoretical approaches

Strengthening the national security and territorial integrity for Russia facing new geopolitical realities is associated with rethinking its regional policy and searching for tools to redress spatial imbalances. Despite a considerable body of literature on regional policy, its conceptual bases continue to be debated among the academic community, and therefore, there is no agreed definition as yet. Practically, this ambiguity causes difficulties with designing efficient mechanisms of implementing regional policy and assessing its results. The paper intends to identify the components of regional policy and propose its original definition. The methodological basis of the research includes theories of regional economics and state regulation of regional development. Methods of theoretical analysis, synthesis, generalisation and comparison are used. Based on the systematisation of the scientific ideas about regional policy in the countries with different macroeconomic paradigms, the paper justifies its components and interprets it as a subsystem of state regulation, which represents a strategically oriented system of institutions, measures, and mechanisms aimed at managing the spatial organisation of the reproduction of resources and development conditions in territories in order to ensure the balanced socioeconomic development of regions, cure territories’ problems and guard national and local interests of territories based on the selective and differentiating approaches. Reconsidering the concept of regional policy is a demanded step towards forming efficient mechanisms of regions’ adaptation to the new economy reality.