Synthesising Dimension A: Assessment of promoters and inhibitors (in regards to the ac-tion: dimensions 3 to 5)
The below assessment of promoters and inhibitors of enhancing distributional and procedural justice focuses on governance and management issues. In doing this, it relies on some specific aspects drawn from the conceptual framework of the project by Madanipour et al. (2017). Three sets of considerations could be discussed here from the concept of distributive and procedural (in)justice, namely:
− Has the LEADER Program contributed to diminishing spatial injustice via enhancing the accessibility of goods, services and opportunities for inhabitants of the LAG area in gen-eral, and disadvantaged villages in particular?
− Has the LEADER Program contributed to the empowerment of vulnerable social groups, thus promoting capacities for an enhanced level of spatial justice?
− What procedures, institutions, or decision-making mechanisms (power-relations) have helped achievements, and what barriers have reduced or prevented positive outcomes?
To answer these questions:
− Yes, the Balaton Uplands LEADER contributed to diminishing spatial injustice even in the disadvantaged areas: as compared to the 8% of population-rate of the villages con-cerned, they attracted 15% of development funding. The gap between the more and less developed areas was not closed, but the chance of being able to apply for funding suc-cessfully mattered a lot for them.
− Yes, it has contributed to the empowerment of vulnerable social groups, although only one of them was addressed directly, namely the youth. Empowerment was at work also when, for example the part-time mayor of a tiny village is provided with the esteem of being an equal and appreciated member of a prestigious LAG community being able to enjoy expressions of solidarity. (Interview quotation No 6. Annex 8.6.)
− The procedures, institutions, and decision-making mechanisms that promoted these achievements were as follows:
o The multi-sectoral composition of the local action group (public, private, civic) gives opportunity to a more balanced development agenda and broader co-oper-ation networks. Mutual learning is also automatically provided, which contrib-utes to the LAG’s capability of bringing consensual decisions. .
o The same applies to the institutions of the LAG, the presidency and the body in charge of making decisions over the supported projects. All these bodies are or-ganised along the same principles; their composition is keenly balanced along geo-graphical and sectoral aspects. It has probably much to do with the advanced sense of social engineering of the practitioners of the Balaton Uplands LEADER.
o The hard-working, skilled and highly committed practitioners were willing to op-erate the LEADER LAG along the classic principles and made the development process truly participatory and bottom up. They sincerely targeted to bring as much development to the LAG area as possible and tailor the strategy as well as its implementation to the local needs. (Interview quotation No 4.3. Annex 8.6.)
In previous chapter numerous problem-areas of LEADER administrative rules have been pointed out. These are complemented here with further barriers listed below.
− The investigated 2007-2013 period was the first programming period when national-level policy makers (left-wing that time) extended access to the LEADER Programme to all rural areas. The governance of the Programme was top-down and strictly controlled.
Significant help was provided through decentralised offices that operated until 2011.
The closure of so called rural development offices as deconcentrated organisations re-flect the political vulnerability of the LEADER Program and the system of development as a whole: each political shift and/or each programming period brought fundamental reor-ganisations, shrinking of institutional and human capacities, and a troublesome as well as long transition from one iteration of the Programme to the other. The current period was the worst ever, when the Paying Agency lost its institutional autonomy and was sub-sumed under the Treasury; its regional branches were closed down, and its IT system was completely renewed which caused intolerable delay.
− If we go back in time to the start of the former programming period, 2007-2008, the shift to full coverage of the Programme induced huge gap of administrative capacities in the Paying Agency. Therefore out of a sudden, administration was pushed from central to LAG level. LAG agencies were fully unprepared and totally overloaded with this move for about a year.
− Administrative burden and complexity of the applications seem to be attached to the LEADER Program rooting in EAFRD rules; LEADER as an area-based complex program which does not suit an administrative system shaped for managing direct payments and individual investments.
− To bridge the gap between two phases of the Programme was always difficult; it is one of the “systematic failures” of implementation. The last transition was particularly difficult for the Hungarian LAGs: unlike in the previous period when they managed two axes of the RDP, only the LEADER measure is operated in the current phase resulting in a huge drop of funding (to one fourth in case of the Balaton Uplands LAG). Such fluctuation of delegated tasks and resources hinders the stabilisation of development capacities in rural spaces.
− All these negative trends affected the prestige of the LEADER Programme unfavourably, which has just become unimportant for policy-makers. No services are provided by the National Rural Network (the last LEADER contact Point was closed in 2009) and activists are simply disregarded. (Interview quotation No 7.1. Annex 8.6.)
Synthesising Dimension B: Competences and capacities of stakeholders
In the Hungarian context, competencies and capacities of the Balaton Uplands LAG management as well as that of the Board was outstanding in the 2007-13 period, when the 60 settlements of the LAG area were managed by 10-12 employees in three offices at peak. Practitioners were very successful in grassroots activation of local stakeholders, generating project ideas and helping to implement them. It might be considered as a limitation that awareness-raising process mostly reached middle class to lower middle class layers of the population, mainly those with some so-cial capital and finanso-cial means to invest. (See also for the middle-class bias Shucksmith 2000) Civic self-organising capacities were particularly intensive in the central part of the LAG area, where a number of strong youth organisations with an umbrella organisation above them have operated for many years. A large rural cultural festival (Valley of Arts), looking back to some 30 years of history, at its peak involving seven villages, intense local organisation and attracting
tens of thousands of visitors each year, also greatly enhanced capacities for co-operation and working in partnership. Those actors, educated in civic activism had a major role in generating locally tailored projects with ambitious community values, indicating the importance of human capacities and competencies in rural development. (Interview quotation No 4.1. Annex 8.6.) Outstanding managerial skills, networking, and the hard work of the rural development practi-tioners of the Agency resulted in high absorption capacities of the LAG and a shared sense of common achievements, even within a quite hostile political and administrative environment.
(Interview quotation No 8. Annex 8.6.) Human and institutional resources (skills, procedural knowledge, self-confidence, high level of trust) coming into being and embedding into social networks, entrepreneurial and co-operation cultures and capacities of stakeholders and practi-tioners were as valuable outcomes of the process of development as tangible outputs. (Interview quotation No 3. Annex 8.6.) However, as it has mentioned in the earlier chapters of this case study report, a substantial part of the human capacity had vanished by 2017, the rest was threat-ened with vanishing because of the structural failures of the LEADER Program at EU and na-tional levels (long duration of the transition period from one iteration to the other, shortage of capacities, lacking continuity.)
Synthesising Dimension C: Connecting the action to procedural and distributive justice
The LEADER Program had a very important role in shaping the “culture of development” across Hungary from its first appearance in the pre-accession period up until the present. The basic LEADER principles (area based cross-sectoral partnership, bottom up, participative strategy building and implementation, networking/co-operation, innovation) established a new style of governance in rural areas. As it is mentioned above, procedural justice was enhanced by the fair-ness of procedures LEADER principles entailed. Multilateral consultations and consensus-build-ing had become the norm of the operation that prevented direct political intervention. Fairness of the decision-making was a primary goal of all participants and helpers of the selection pro-cess, thus distributional justice was impacted positively, too. One of the managers celebrated the feeling of living and working in local democracy inspired by the local community and the excel-lent team the Programme brought together. (Interview quotation No 4.2. Annex 8.6.)
The local development agency which played a key role in building a carefully planned, place-tai-lored, community-owned, bottom-up strategy, took care of the LEADER-like and fair implemen-tation of each step of the development process. Making LEADER principles into practice in 2008-10 established a durable course of development valid at least for two programming periods.
Since LEADER addresses primarily development of the local economy, therefore social equality claims are not directly targeted. Nevertheless, providing funding for the disadvantaged villages and thus help closing the gap between the poorest and richest parts of the LAG area was one of the main goals of the LAG which was successfully achieved. Spreading information, activation and animation as elements of a proper LEADER appraiser were key to encourage disadvantaged municipalities and uninformed citizens to apply for funding despite the complexity of the pro-posals. To enhance distributive justice, services were brought closer to the potential clients through the three offices of the Agency (peak time) where advice was given for the applicants.
The managers themselves did not deal with writing proposals, rather, a network of local experts was organised so that applicants get help at a decent price.
When the LAG area was established, a soft space was being created with the definite target of generating cohesion, secured through co-operation schemes made mandatory between projects benefiting from LEADER funding. Co-operation projects, shared and strengthened identity con-tributed to place-making directly and indirectly, too.
The management of the Balaton Uplands LAG was always active in building networks beyond the LAG. They developed good working relationship with experts of the managing authority
nation-scale and the regional branch of the Paying Agency; the regular two-sided help provided contrib-uted to moderating the rigidity of the administrative rules and gave way to mutual learning of the local and upper-scale experts. The Balaton Uplands LEADER LAG was a founding member of the NATURAMA Alliance, a learning association of seven Hungarian LAGS, a key member of the Alliance of Hungarian LEADER LAGs, and maintained strong connections with Spanish and Ital-ian LAGs, too. Exchanges and the transmission of knowledge were always part of the working culture here, delivering experiences across places. The LAG’s most successful programs will hopefully become self-sustaining and continue to work for a long time. It is most likely in case of the Balaton Uplands Trademark (A Vidék Minősége – Éltető Balaton Védjegy) which had got stronger even during the transition period having 103 members by 2018.