The Birth of Region-based Economic Politics in Belgium (ca. 1930-1959
With the 1980s' state reform, the Belgian regions received large powers to implement their own economic policy. Although the first clear questions in that respect were raised at policy level during the interwar period, there was no concrete policy as yet. Foreign countries had a general tendency to consider economic growth from a regional perspective, but in Belgium it was not until the 18 July 1959-expansion law that a full-fledged regional economics law proposal came to exist. This study intends to understand the reasons for the delay of this regional economic policy in Belgium. Belgian historiography has given little space to regional economic political processes. Restraining and stimulating factors overlapped, influencing the evolution towards a regional economic discourse. The issue of this study is why this complicated process was so much delayed before it became a concrete legislation as compared to other West European countries, and which factors and actors played herein a role. Thereby it also raises the question of the role played by the yet-to-be regional consultations
