La politique québécoise de la ruralité : le développement local à l'épreuve

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of Quebec?s rural policy with an emphasis on Rural Pacts which are the corner stone of this policy. Special attention is devoted to the evaluation issue by keeping in mind what local development is all about. In so doing, we make use of some elements drawn from a study conducted by the Carrefour québécois du développement local, which one of the co-authors was involved in. After explaining the relevance and appropriateness y of the qualitative approach utilized, we present the way in which it was implemented for the purpose of policy evaluation. On the basis of documentary research and out interviews with key actors in five Counties (Municipalités Régionales de Comté) of central Quebec, we describe the way this policy is implemented two years after its adoption. Even it is well recognized that local development can not occur by decree, we think that, in this paper, we succeeded in demonstrating the role that the State and local actors can play with respect to rural development.