In this paper we define regional economic development as a political-geographical problem using a theoretical logic drawn from the writings of Antonio Gramsci on hegemony and the Italian qursrione meridionule (southern question). This logic is then used in a discussion of regional industrial policy in Northern Ireland between 1945 and 1972. A major claim is that relative levels of regional economic development are not independent of politics, nor do they follow some natural economic order; they are, instead, critically dependent on the practical need of states for popular legitimation of economic activities and for the political-social order represented by a particular government or political party. The paper ends with a brief comparison of the approach with alternatives.