Open AccessParticipation of disadvantaged groups and governance in the LEADER and PRODER programmes in Andalucía, Spain
Author(s) -
Francisco Antonio Navarro Valverde,
Eugenio Cejudo García,
Juan Carlos Maroto Martos
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
studies in agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2063-0476
pISSN - 1418-2106
DOI - 10.7896/j.1532
Subject(s) - disadvantaged , corporate governance , political science , sociology , economic growth , parochialism , economics , management , politics , law
The involvement of disadvantaged groups in European Union neo-endogenous rural development programmes, such as\udthe LEADER programme, must be a high priority. In this paper we study the profiles of the beneficiaries of LEADER and\udPRODER, the main Spanish example of mainstreaming the LEADER method, in the NUTS 2 region of Andalucía, Spain in\udthe period 2002-2008, and of the decision makers in the Local Action Groups (LAGs). Using quantitative information provided\udby the regional administration and a questionnaire survey of managers of the LAGs, we show that there has been continuing\udunderrepresentation of previously disadvantaged groups and territories, so contributing to uneven and selective empowerment\udand governance that favours the emergence of a project class. The groups that have benefited the most from LEADER\udinvestments have been entrepreneurs and ‘town halls’, in this order. Interviewed LAG managers felt that many mistakes had\udbeen made in the application of LEADER: excessive bureaucracy and interventionism by the regional administration, loss of\udthe original philosophy, low participation of disadvantaged groups and lack of strategic vision. As was noted by one of the LAG\udmanagers, “LEADER has been a victim of its own success; the universalisation of its method has led to the elimination of its\udexperimental nature as a real laboratory for the development of rural areas”