Authors
1
Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Research Institute of Hawzeh and University.Qom.Iran.
2
Doctoral student, Islamic economy, research institute and university
10.30471/jee.2026.11338.2547
Abstract
Regional development policymaking is at a normative crossroads: Are only “interindividual inequalities” reprehensible or are “interregional inequalities” also reprehensible? And if policies to reduce “interregional inequality” are necessary, what are their goals? This research, using an analytical-descriptive method, surveys the answers to the above question in common approaches such as egalitarianism, Rawls' approach, Amartya Sen's and Nussbaum's "capability" approach, market failure approach, intergenerational justice approach, and etc. Then, using Narrative evidence, it expresses the Islamic approach. According to the results of this study, people-based policies that reproduce regional poverty and unemployment, by increasing regional inequality or regional development traps, are contrary to the Islamic perspective. It is also demonstrated that reducing regional inequality, due to the existence of two correlations, can realize the jurisprudential rule of "social balance": the correlation of "regional inequalities" with "increasing the income class gap between the top and bottom deciles at the national scale" and "reducing intergenerational income mobility in some regions". Furthermore, using the rule of "prohibition of conventional oppression," the necessity of confronting unequal regional processes or outcomes (e.g., resulting from the long-term persistence of self-reinforcing cycles of underdevelopment) is substantiated in conditions that are conventionally considered oppression.Therefore, according to the Islamic approach, "interregional inequality" can be reprehensible in certain circumstances, so instead of people-based policies, it is necessary to design People-Based policies (or similar) with the aim of reducing regional inequality.
Keywords
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