West Virginia: A Case for Economic Distributism in Appalachia’s Poorest State

Since the development of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) in 1965, Appalachia has been subjected to top-down, nodal development strategies that have, at best, produced mixed results. This paper presents a critical analysis of modernist-based development within West Virginia, and argues the need for a radical rethinking of economic development theory within the Appalachian context. More specifically, this paper considers the potential of economic distributism as a viable economic development alternative to West Virginia’s pervasive and systematic underdevelopment. It is also suggested that economic distributism may serve as an alternative economic development model for other lagging sub-regions within Appalachia