Lost in Translation? Regional Policy from National Strategy to EU Competitive Framework

Flavia Martinelli

Rivista economica del Mezzogiorno, 2020, issue 1-2, 85-123

Abstract: This article is about regional disparities and regional policy in Europe,with a focus on Italy. The point of departure is the persistence of regional inequalitiesin many European countries, after some fifty years of public policies.In many cases, intra-national regional divergence has actually resumedafter the convergence observed in the third quarter of the twentieth century.Why is that? What went wrong? To answer these questions, first the evolutionof regional policy in Europe is reviewed, challenging three pillars of the currentEU Cohesion policy: the faith in government decentralisation, the «localdevelopment governance» paradigm, and the competitive approach. The caseof Southern Italy is then presented, as an illustration of both the evolution ofregional policy and some failures of Cohesion policy. Subsequently, what was«lost in translation», in the shift from the «national» regional policies of the1960s and 1970s to the multi-level EU Cohesion policy framework establishedin the 1990s, is highlighted. It is argued that much has been given up in termsof unitary strategic perspective, financial commitment, and leverage, whereasthe «local development policy governance» approach tends to reproduce andenhance regional disparities. Finally, pointers for a renewed policy commitmentare proposed.

Keywords: Regional Disparities; Regional Policy; EU Cohesion Policy; Decentralisation; Local Development Governance; Italy; Less Favoured Regions. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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