Why policies fail? An institutional model explaining success and failure factors of rural development policies in Europe

This paper intends to analyse which are the main mechanisms and factors which bring either to failure or to success rural development policies. This analysis has been done in four Italian regions and in five rural areas, in order to catch macro and “meso” dimensions of success and failure. This analysis take under consideration governance and rules as the main arena where the different stakeholders try to impose their influence and interests at stake. Factors of success and failure operate along the institutional chain starting from the EU to the local level. By their collective action they try to shape rules and governance structures in relation to the impact they perceive on the resource allocation and the transaction costs needed to access to policies