Laura Polverari

Handbook on Cohesion Policy in the EU

This Handbook covers all major aspects of EU Cohesion policy, one of the most significant areas of intervention of the European Union. Over five parts, It discusses this policy’s history and governing principles; the theoretical approaches from which it can be assessed; the inter-institutional and multi-level dynamics that it tends to elicit; its practical implementation and impact on EU member states; its interactions with other EU policies and strategies; and the cognitive maps and narratives with which it can be associated.

Policy Rhetoric versus Political Reality: Has the Italian State Given Up on the Mezzogiorno?

The goal to develop the Mezzogiorno has been a long-standing feature of Italian public policy, reflecting the enduring, and so far unsolved, duality between the developed Centre–North and the lagging South. The policy response has changed over time: from the ‘Special Intervention’ to the more recent nuova programmazione. This article focuses on the evolution of the nuova programmazione during the last few years, from 2007 to 2011. It shows that notwithstanding a restated formal commitment to raise the Mezzogiorno to a level similar to the rest of the country, the policy reality has been a substantial abandonment of this goal. The article sheds light on the reasons behind the persistence of the Mezzogiorno problem, the challenges faced by redistributive policies in times of economic crisis, and the limits of the European Unions role as an external force to remove domestic blockages.

Da stato unitario a stato federale : territorializzazione della politica, devoluzione e adattamento istituzionale in Europa

A book review of Da stato unitario a stato federale: territorializzazione della politica, devoluzione e adattamento istituzionale in Europa by Sofia Ventura

Riflessioni sulla riforma della politica di coesione per il periodo 2014-2020: stato del dibattito e prospettive per l’Italia

Reflections on the reform of Italian cohesion policy for 2014-2020. The state of the debate and the prospects for Italy.

EU–China and EU–Brazil policy transfer in regional policy

ABSTRACT The paper investigates the European Union (EU)–Brazil and EU–China regional policy dialogues, viewed as vectors of cross-national policy transfer. Regional policy is considered as having limited transfer potential due to its inward orientation, context specificity and complexity. Yet, knowledge exchange and voluntary policy transfer have taken place between the EU and Brazil and between the EU and China since the mid-2000s. The study investigates and compares actors, motivations, mechanisms of transfer, conditioning factors and types of outcomes, shedding a light on the under-researched phenomenon of international policy transfer in regional policy.

Italy at 150: Still a Divided Society Has the Italian State Given Up on the Mezzogiorno?

As Italy celebrates 150 years of life as a unified State, it remains a divided country. Notwithstanding decades of explicit regional policies and the constitutional commitment that all Italian citizens have equal rights, access to essential services and minimum living standards irrespective of where they live, not just the North-South divide remains sizeable but its overcome may be challenged even further by recent political, institutional and economic developments. The present paper focuses on the most recent phase of Italian regional development policy - known as the nuova programmazione - and shows that a primary factor in determining the disappointing performance of Italian regional policy in this phase has been a lack of political commitment. It will also demonstrate that, beyond the rhetoric on the importance of the Mezzogiorno, in reality the goal of the development and catching up of this area is not a primary aim of the current Government’s agenda.

Introduction: drawing lessons from international policy-transfer initiatives in regional and urban development and spatial planning

ABSTRACT The collection of papers in this issue brings new insights to the processes of international policy transfer and learning in the fields of regional and urban development policy, regional innovation and transit-oriented development. It explores, through the perspective of different disciplines, the motivations of actors, tangible and non-tangible outputs, the role of factors affecting the process, and the spillover effects of such process. The contributions bring new insights into what represents success and failure in policy transfer and provide valuable lessons for policy-makers facing the challenges of a fast-changing global context.

Cohesion policy in the southern periphery

This chapter discusses the implementation of Cohesion policy in the southern member states (MSs) of the European Union: Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain. Together these countries account for more than a quarter of the European population (25.63 per cent) and almost 22 per cent of the EU28 aggregate gross domestic product (GDP) (2014 data). They are rather diverse in terms of the territorial development challenges faced, regional policy traditions and institutional set-up. Malta and Cyprus, which joined the European Union (EU) in 2004, are small island economies with marginal regional disparities. The main goal of Cohesion policy in these countries has been to assist national growth. Greece and Portugal, with their circa 10 million inhabitants each, face challenges of territorial balance, related predominantly to the polarisation of development in the capital regions and along the Attika–Thessaloniki (in Greece) and coastland–inland (in Portugal) axes. However, rather than overcoming regional disparities, the primary concern of economic and regional policies in these countries has also been the desire to enhance national growth. Italy and Spain, on the other hand, are large states with historically rooted regional imbalances. The main focus of Cohesion policy here has been the development of lagging regions.

Eu-China and Eu-Brazil Policy Transfer and Learning in Regional Development Policy

Governments confronted with major challenges, requiring new policies of addressing the failures of pre-existing ones, often seek new ideas abroad. They engage in a dialogue with other governments to learn from their experiences and bring new solutions into their domestic contexts. Some governments and supranational bodies, such as the EU, are also keen to export their policies and norms, in order to deepen strategic relationships with third parties.

Alcune riflessioni sull'accountability della politica di coesione europea, sul trade-off tra diversi tipi di accountability e sul trade-off tra accountability ed efficacia

Some reflections on the accountability of European cohesion policy, the trade-off between different types of accountability and the trade-off between accountability and effectiveness.