Public Policy and Regionalism: II. The Appalachian Regional Commission and other Federal Approaches to Regional Planning in the 1960s

Abstract

In the 1960s there were a number of attempts in the United States to plan within a regional base, although none attracted funding on the scale of the nationwide agencies (Figure 9.1). The term, ‘regional commission’ was used in a rather confusing way for several quite distinct approaches. The Appalachian Regional Commission was designated to apply to all, or part, of thirteen states, and was given a variety of powers and links to other programmes. It was also independent of other Federal agencies, and was supplied with at least reasonable amounts of money to carry out its work, and so was able to develop into a mature agency.