LEADER: Where it came from and what’s still in it (2nd edition)

LEADER has a long history and is still going strong. Robert Lukesch gave a talk in the final conference of the transnational project ‘LEADER/CLLD: Our common future’ on 4-6 November 2024, in Cheleiros/Mafra, Portugal, on the topic of ‘LEADER: Where it came from and what’s still in it’. This was based on a treatise in which he offers an exceptional account of the origins, evolution and prospects of LEADER from a personal perspetive.  The paper has been updated (March 2025) following further contributions.

The link to the full paper (2nd edition, March 2025) is available below.

Introduction

PART I: The Background of LEADER

Global political and economic shifts

• When the bipolar world order crumbled
• The neoliberal turn
• Globalisation under the neoliberal lodestar
• The countercurrent that sees the world as finite
• German unification and British sceptics
• A touch of Euro-optimism

The European Union in the making

• The origins of agricultural and structural policies
• The buildup of European institutions
• The institutionalization of Cohesion Policy
• Shifting targets for the Common Agricultural Policy
• The CAP transition to area-based payments
• The European Commission under Jacques Delors
• Bureaucracy asserts itself

The emergence of new approaches to local and regional development

• The apparent weaknesses of top down planning and investment concepts
• The call for an end to dependence
• The paradigm shift towards endogenous and place-based development approaches
• Local development as an emancipatory concept
• Scaling up: the shift towards place-based approaches in mainstream policies

PART II: The voyage of LEADER through time

The genesis of LEADER

• Prelude
• The DG V (Employment), the incubator of LEADER in the EC
• The OECD, a most significant source of advice
• The focus of LEADER precursors: local employment, education and training
• Towards integrated territorial development
• The time was ripe for LEADER
• LEADER arises: From the Community Initiative to the method
• From the ELISE network to the LEADER I Coordination Unit
• LEADER I, the radical institutional innovation
• LEADER II and the European LEADER II Observatory
• Deciphering the code: the LEADER method
• “800 Leader give their views”
• LEADER as a driver of innovation
• LEADER as an emancipatory approach
• The small, but significant reconfiguration of the LEADER specificities

The mainstreaming of LEADER

• LEADER+: A bumpy transition
• The institutionalisation of LEADER as CLLD
• The rural network grows, staffing for LEADER shrinks
• LEADER spreads out
• The LEADER community, spanning institutional and civil society networks
• Synthesis: overview of six phases of LEADER implementation

PART III: LEADER at the crossroads

Recent developments in European agricultural and rural policies

• Ambitious objectives, implementation delegated
• The journey continues

Turning the page: How can the lessons from the past nurture future prospects?

• Growing diversity, rising complexity
• Territorial inequalities, an underestimated evil
• Remarrying global challenges with place-based approaches
• Cultivate what has been achieved and venture the new
• Lessons to heed
• Scattered thoughts on the future of governance
• Laughing against the wind

Summary: Key proposals emanating from this treatise

Bibliography

This treatise has been written by Robert Lukesch in the framework of the transnational LEADER project “LEADER/CLLD: Our Common Future” (2023-2024) implemented by 13 partners and the Austrian LEADER forum as the lead partner.

For the full treatise click below