373 



of sovereignties not only of nations within intended ''regions" but also 

 of such nations with various of the superpowers. Goals of such interna- 

 tional regions may be the same as (hose of U.S. developmental regions, 

 but alternatively may encompass shared interests in national security, 

 and these interests may also involve the superpowers. A further com- 

 plicating factor is the existence of innumerable international agencies 

 with different objectives, different scopes of interest, and different ap- 

 proaches to regionalism. 

 Regional Development in the United States 



Regionalism became almost an ideology in the United States during 

 the depression years. Its advocate*- cited the Tennessee Valley Au- 

 thority as the idealization of the concept. Although admittedly a 

 capital-intensive development of dams, power plants, transmission 

 lines, Mood control works, and navigation improvements, TVA was 

 much more: a complex program of soil improvement, agricultural 

 processing, farm technology!, reforestation, and commercial develop- 

 ment of the entire basin of the Tennessee River and its tributaries. 

 The TVA concept was characterized by the following features: 

 Corporate organization 



Exercise of the sovereign powers of the Federal Government 

 Right to hold and sell property, to sue and be sued 

 Authority to construct and operate power dams and distribution 



lines — to sell power wholesale or retail 

 Domain over the entire watershed of the Tennessee River 

 A policy of contracting with State and local governments and 



individuals for cooperative development arrangements 

 Maintenance of its own civil service and labor relations 

 Incorporation within its central organization of miniature de- 

 partments of commerce, agriculture, labor, health, mining, and 

 engineering technology, in addition to its more widely pub- 

 licized power activities. 

 Various criticisms have been expressed of alleged imperfections in 

 TVA — its tendency to yield to elitist elements locally, technical deci- 

 sions to flood extensive'areas of bottomland, the sharp bargaining for 

 coal that encouraged extensive strip mining without subsequent re- 

 pair, conflicts of jurisdiction with departments of the National Gov- 

 ernment, and charges of excessive claims of regional economic benefits. 

 Nevertheless. TVA must be accounted a technical success, and perhaps 

 more importantly a political success. Xotable bipartisan support has 

 arisen in the Valley whenever TVA lias been challenged, and its place 

 as an American institution appears to be firmly established. 



Despite this acceptance, when the question arose as to whether the 

 TVA experiment should be repeated elsewhere in precisely — or essen- 

 tially — the same format, the decision was always in favor of some 

 other approach. There were many of these. Development of the Mis- 

 souri, the Columbia, the Colorado, and other of America's great rivers 

 was entrusted to departments of the National Government. Encour- 

 agement and support for cooperative joint organizations of the States 

 to develop such regions as Appalachia, Four Corners, the Great Lakes, 

 and elsewhere, were coordinated by an institution of the Department 

 of Commerce. Significantly, many of the lessons learned in the TVA 

 experiment were applied elsewhere: enlisting local support and par- 



