DESIGN OF TERRITORIES AND MANAGEMENT STRUCTURES IN REGIONAL AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Within European Rural Policy the so called LEADER approach encourages rural actors to define a common territory, establish a private-public partnership and take over the responsibility of local development. The development process is supported by a decentralised local management unit. In the initial phase the founders of a local partnership have to make two important decisions. First, they have to lay down the delineations of their territory. Here they can either draw on pre-existing spatial entities or define a new territory from scratch Second, they have to design operational structures. In practice the management unit can be either LEADER-focused dealing mainly with programme-related issues, or conceptualised as a multi-issue and multi-fund development agency. The design of territories as well as of management structures are supposed to have an impact on the partnerships' operational effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a significant difference between the two basic management models. It also determined whether a relationship exists between the spatial congruence and the effectiveness of management. The empirical investigations follow an explanatory sequential mixed methods procedure. The quantitative analysis is based on the midterm evaluation of LEADER implementation in Austria in 2007-2013. The qualitative part is built on expert interviews. Statistical testing revealed that spatial congruence and management model excel their impact through the latent variable "institutional thickness". Local partnerships covering a territory with a higher spatial matching and running a one-stop-shop-like development agency had least difficulties to set up an effective management. The expert interviews confirmed these results but stressed the fact that governance regimes with a high institutional thickness must remain open for new actors and new ideas.