The paper argues that since the mid 70s the European governments have slowly abandoned the “top-down” approach for regional policy, and, simultaneously, introduced the “bottom-up” approach. After describing the general characteristics of European local initiatives, an attempt is made at conceptualizing local development strategy. The features, aims, actions and forms of management that differentiate the new regional policy from the former one, are identified. Furthermore, the theoretical foundations of the new regional policy, and some of the explaining factors for its appearance and development are presented. The paper ends with a discussion of its results and limitations.