Four ideal types for Leaderability: Cases from Local Action Groups

Among the European Union-funded programmes supporting development, the LEADER approach aims to promote the peculiarities of rural areas through an innovative participatory approach based on the following key words: participation, decentralisation, partnership and devolution of managerial functions to communities. The approach has been running for 20 years and plays a key role in the development of European rural areas; however, it is still a quite new system for East European countries. In this framework, is the LEADER approach the perfect tool to tackle European rural development issues? This paper explores and compares the implementation of the LEADER approach in Bulgaria, comparing it with Apulia region in Italy, through a web survey administrated to Local Action Groups (LAGs): respondents were 10 Bulgarian and 15 Italian LAGs. The surveyed LAGs deal with diverse challenges concerning the adoption of the LEADER approach, partnerships, available resources and, above all, decision power in the local area. The analysis investigates the so-called ‘Leaderability’ faced by the LAGs, focusing on the main role they cover in the local area: the aim is to examine whether the selected LAGs match with the LEADER features. The results show that most of the Bulgarian and Italians cases consider the LAG as a rural development agency by using strategies, resources and partnerships fitting with the model of Leaderability. The implications shed some light on the need to find a clearer identity according to the diverse LEADER ideal types they can shape, such as information diffusion centre or expertise and competence centre with different responsibilities.