What is it about?
How far politics influence regional development through the use of EU Structural funds? This article provides a more rigorous methodological approach based on the stability and alignment of political parties showing that politics matters for distribution and, for a minor extent, use of EU money, but not for regional development (when other variables are much more relevant).
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Why is it important?
By unpacking the multilevel governance of the EU Cohesion Policy and modelling political interactions, the article shows that politics influences the distribution and the way EU Structural Funds are used, but it is weakly associated with regional development.
Perspectives
I did not like previous article reducing politics to just one variable in econometric models. Politics is also about the long-term stability of political consensus and party competition. By taking into account these variables, it is possible to provide a better understanding of the role of politics during the different political phases. In fact, politics matters for the distribution of money across regions (regions politically aligned with the national government are more likely to get more money), and the way they use Structural Funds (politically unstable regions tend to invest more in infrastructure to provide more tangible results). However, these factors have a relatively limited importance for regional development, whereas national patterns are by far more relevant.
Dr. Nicola Francesco Dotti
Science Europe
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Unwritten Factors Affecting Structural Funds: The Influence of Regional Political Behaviours on the Implementation of EU Cohesion Policy, European Planning Studies, May 2015, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2015.1047328.
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