This paper is aimed at discussing the role of institutions in explaining policy outcomes in rural development. After a discussion of the theoretical framework, we have proposed a model to understand and analysing why bad policies persist over time and what are the effects on policy institutions...

This book has been published within the National Programme "Creation of a National Rural Network for Rural Development" under the European Commission Decision no.C (2002) of 19 February 2002.

In many countries the so-called “institutional framework” is reasonable if one considers the stratification of national, regional and local administrations that characterise them, with a highly decentralised structure. Not only that: this “institutional framework” has been enriched by...

In many countries the so-called “institutional framework” is reasonable if one considers the stratification of national, regional and local administrations that characterise them, with a highly decentralised structure. Not only that: this “institutional framework” has been enriched by...

This chapter is the final one (no. 12) in the report.

This book has been published with the contribution of the Ministry of Agricultural Policies within a project called "The complementarity between the State Aid and Rural Development Policies" under Minister Decree no.16782 of 24 December 2007.

The main objective of this work is to review the recent achievements on the mechanisms explaining local and rural development, which underpin the current definition of rural areas in the European literature. The analysis carried out in this article acknowledges a gap between local development...