Dissecting changing rural development policy networks: the case of Greece

Rural development has, in recent years, become a major area of EU policy, to the extent that the term has even begun to be overused in signifying a new shift in EU rural policy. The result has been a great deal of misunderstanding and numerous divergent interpretations of both the concept and the practice. Although rural development existed as a policy domain before the arrival of the accentuated ‘Second Pillar’ of the reformed Common Agricultural Policy, the fact is that an increasingly Europeanized approach to rural development funding, programming, and administration has developed in the post-1999 period. In this paper we argue that the study of rural development policy will gain a great deal from using a policy network approach to interpret the dynamics of evolving rural development policy within member states. Our main aim is to analyze and interpret the newly emerging Rural Development Policy Network in Greece, which aspires to separate itself from a strong and resistant Agricultural Policy Network . The example of Greece suits the purpose of the paper not only because of Greece’s continuing reliance on agriculture and the centrality of the latter in sustaining rural livelihoods, but most importantly due to the institutional arrangements developed around it, which are characterized by a prevalence of agricultural interests at the expense of wider rural concerns. The concern of this paper is with the mechanisms of transition, and to a lesser extent with its outcome. One major finding is that the policy network approach to the study of rural development policy in Greece brings to light a certain transformation in policy structures, mechanisms, and administration. This transformation is not so evident at the level of policy style and/or policy outcome. Due to it having been labeled a ‘laggard’ member state, Greece has been affected by the Europeanization of rural development policy and has to some extent transformed its policy- making procedures accordingly. At the same time, the process of Europeanization has acted to empower civil society mechanisms and actors.