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1.
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Context
Many areas
of the industrialized world, and especially in Europe, are currently
experiencing two parallel developments: the increasing political importance of
the regional level and the proliferation of regionally-based initiatives in
economic promotion. Both have important consequences for the distribution of
the institutionalized capacity to make and influence decisions regarding the
long-term future and development of a particular locality. in short these
developments will affect the patterns of regional governance.
These
developments can be placed in the context of the wider interests in regional
governance and institutions which came to the fore in the 1980s in both the
literature of economics and geography, when attention began to be given to such
factors as institutional capacity, thickness, the invisible factors in regional
development, networking and
industrial districts
.. This set of learning materials represents a
timely and critical reflection on the prominent role of governance,
institutions, institution-building and institutional change in regional
development at the start of the new millennium. Although institutions,
networks
and
partnerships
rather than policies often seem to be the answer
to regional problems, they have also been stimulated by the general
acknowledgment across the social and regional sciences of the importance of
governance
..
Two issues
are central to this set of learning materials:
- The question of
governance - how does the ongoing process of institution-building affect the
ways in which the regions and localities are governed? This question
encompasses questions of democracy, participation, regional self-determination,
public-private partnerships and accountability
- The consequences of new
modes of governance and institutional change for regional development
strategies and policies, particularly in the context of large-scale industrial
restructuring and city-region and urban regeneration
1.2 Developing Regional
Governance and Institutional Capacity
In
addressing the emerging issues of regional governance and institutional
capacity this section draws upon material in a number of disciplines and links
critically to a number of the other themes in the overall set. It is based on
current research as well as the existing literature and a number of networks
concerned with the analysis of institutions, governance and regional
development.
The new
institutional environment is characterized by agencies dedicated to the
promotion of the regional development of their areas. A recent book (Halkier,
Danson and Damborg 1998) found that institutions such as
regional development agencies
(RDAs) are beginning to evolve into organizations
which do not aim to deliver economic development services directly as much as
they try to coordinate the delivery. By acting as catalysts, these agencies
have moved beyond simple bodies engaged in development themselves by working in
partnership with other players in the regional economy.
Much
analysis has been done of these agencies and that of federal, national and
regional partnerships within different environments in Europe and the United
States. These analyses have focused on their policies, programs and
performances, utilizing traditional economic evaluation techniques. But these
analyses reflect the traditional form of RDAs. The evolution of RDAs into new
forms of development institutions suggests that new theoretical approaches and
assessments are needed to analyze them. These institutions are significant in
the delivery of regional economic strategies across the developed world, with
RDAs having been established in most developed countries and regions. But there
is a clear need to consider their position within the overall structures of
regional governance.
The trend
towards decentralization, albeit uneven across continents, is often primarily
analyzed from the perspective of an increase in democracy, often with the
national level being seen as an inherently centralizing force only reluctantly
giving way to the rising tide of regionalism, with its demands for enhanced
levels of self-determination. While this is an important part of the story,
there is also another side to the trend toward decentralization, that of the
federal or central government relieving itself of responsibility for policy
areas that have become a liability. This can arise either because the federal
or central government lacks the resources to manage them effectively, because
the economic burden can be off-loaded by passing them onto lower tiers of
government, or because the political burden of being responsible for
unsuccessful policies is deemed to be high.
1.3
Structure of this Set of Learning Materials
This set of
materials discusses questions related to the relationship between governance,
institutional change and regional development under a number of main
headings:
- SECTION 2 : This section considers the theoretical
bases for the study of regional governance, institutions and regional
development. It follows with an exploration of the origins of much of this
study in the work of Alfred Marshall in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. Focusing on Marshall's analysis of industrial districts, the section
argue that certain aspects of Marshall have been ignored in standard texts. In
particular the section contends that Marshall can be seen in a different light
than as the neo-classical "father of economics"
- SECTION 3 : This section extends the theoretical
bases to look at some of the approaches to analyzing regional governance and
development. It discusses the application of economic and organizational
theories to the study of different forms of strategy, introduces the concept of
the RDA, and discusses the links between partnerships and networks
- SECTION 4 : The strategic approach to dealing with
the regional economic problem has increasingly become dependent on the RDA.
This section explores the nature and rationale for such an institutional form
of intervention in the market economy at the level of the region. How such
agencies perform under different forms of regional governance is examined
against a set of guiding principles
- SECTION 5 : We explore the relationship between
individual economic actors, development bodies and their environment on a
micro-level
. The section considers both the concepts
underpinning industrial districts and the mechanics of networking among private
and public economic players. Building strong relationships with private sector
firms and organizations has been seen as a priority for public and semi-public
development agencies; this section reviews the experience that North America
and the European regions have had in building such relationships
- SECTION 6 : On a
meso-level
we examine the role of government bodies and
various forms of development agencies (both within government structures and
beyond) in the political make-up of their regions. The increasing reliance on
individual agencies or networks of development bodies raises important
questions about the relationship between functional efficiency and democratic
legitimacy
- SECTION 7 : On a
macro-level
the relationship between regionally-based
initiatives, federal levels of governance and the emerging European system of
governance in western Europe is discussed under the heading of "Regional
Development and Multilevel Governance". The last few decades have seen a
decreasing role for the traditional regional subsidy programs of central
government and an explosion of bottom-up development bodies and initiatives.
Through federal or European Union Structural Funds these two levels have been
linked together in an intricate pattern involving nations on different
continents, such as the United States and Europe. In the search for knowledge
about new developments on the regional and continent levels, the transformed
role of central government has been overlooked
- SECTION 8 : The final two parts of the section use
case study materials to examine the arguments around governance and
institutional structures in the encouragement of economic growth and
development
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