Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-r6qrq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T22:49:23.173Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Social Capital, Learning and EU Regional Policy Networks: Evidence from Greece*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Christos J. Paraskevopoulos*
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science

Extract

This Article Discusses The Importance Of Social Learning For Eu public policy-making in general and regional policy in particular. The first section analyses the implications of the learning process for EU regional policy and examines its social and institutional prerequisites. Section two introduces the concepts of social capital and institutional networks as components crucial for the learning process and socialization function. The third section, based on the analysis of the role of social learning, delineates the multi-level system of governance in EU regional policy. The fourth section presents empirical evidence from Greek regions on the role of social learning in the implementation of EU regional policy (Structural Funds) programmes. Finally, the last section draws conclusions on the role of social learning in EU regional policy and lessons from the Greek experience.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this article was presented as a paper to the 26th ECPR Workshop on the ‘Institutional Analyses of European Integration’, University of Warwick, 23–28 March 1998.

References

1 Hall, Peter A., ‘Policy Paradigms, Social Learning and the State: The Case of Economic Policy-making in Britain’, Comparative Politics, 25 (1993), pp. 275–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Jeremy Richardson, Actor Based Models of National and EU Policy-Making, University of Essex, Dept of Government, Discussion paper No. 103 (1996); Kohler-Koch, B., ‘Catching up with Change: The Transformation of Governance in the European Union’, Journal of European Public Policy, 3:3 (1996), pp. 359–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jeffrey Checkel, Social Construction, Institutional Analysis and the Study of European Integration, paper presented at the 26 ECPR-Joint Sessions of Workshops, University of Warwick, 23–28 March (1998); and C. J. Paraskevopoulos, Interpreting Convergence in the European Union: Patterns of Collective Action, Social Learning and Europeanization among Greek Regions, London, Macmillan, forthcoming, 2001.

3 Marks, Gary, ‘An Actor-Centred Approach to Multi-Level Governance’, Regional and Federal Studies, 6:2 (1996), pp. 2138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Richardson attempts to introduce the notion of ‘epistemic communities’, originally conceptualized in the field of international relations (see below P. Haas, 1992), within the EU policy-making. Given that the concept of ‘epistemic communities’ refers to the uncertainty of international actors and thus points to the role of knowledge and information flows in facilitating cooperative relations, it is consonant with the learning approach to regional integration in Europe. See Richardson, 1996, op. cit.; Haas, Peter, ‘Introduction: epistemic communities and international policy coordination’, International Organization (Special Issue) 46:1 (1992), pp. 135 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Checkel, 1998, op. cit.; and B. Kohler-Koch, 1996 op. cit.

5 J. Checkel, 1998, op. cit.

6 Shari O. Garmise, Institutional Networks and Industrial Restructuring: Local Initiatives toward the Textile Industry in Nottingham and Prato, Unpublished PhD Thesis, LSE, 1995.

7 See P. Hall, 1993, op. cit.; and J. Checkel, 1998, op. cit.

8 Storper, Michael, ‘The Resurgence of Regional Economies, Ten Years Later: The Region as a Nexus of Untraded Interdependencies’, European Urban and Regional Studies, 2:3 (1995), pp. 191221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 Sabel, Charles, ‘Learning by Monitoring: The Institutions of Economic Development’, in Smelser, J. J. and Swedberg, Richard (eds), The Handbook of Economic Sociology, Russell Sage Foundation, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1994.Google Scholar

10 The impact of the 1988 reforms of the Structural Funds on the redistribution of power between the levels of government, by strengthening the role of the subnational level and establishing direct linkages between supranational, national and subnational authorities through their role in managing and monitoring Operational Programmes (OPs) of the Community Support Frameworks (CSFs) is a characteristic case of unintended consequences resulting from institutional or policy reforms at the EU level. Moreover, the core of these reforms remained almost unchanged even after the 1993 reform put forward after the negotiations over the 1994–99 Structural Funds programme.

11 Klausen, K. and Goldsmith, M., ‘Conclusion: Local Government and the European Union’, inGoldsmith, M. and Klausen, K. (eds), European Integration and Local Government, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 1997.Google Scholar

12 Charlie Jeffery, Sub-National Authorities and European Integration: Moving Beyond the Nation-State?, paper presented at the Fifth Biennial International Conference of the European Community Studies Association, Seattle, USA, 29 May–1 June, 1997; Paraskevopoulos, C. J., ‘Social Capital and the Public/Private Divide in Greek Regions’, West European Politics, 21:2 (1998), pp. 153–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Paraskevopoulos, C. J., ‘Social Capital, Institutional Learning and European Regional Policy: evidence from Greece’, Regional and Federal Studies, 8:3 (1998), pp. 3164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 The ‘Four Motors for Europe’ partnership comprises Baden-Württemberg, the initiator of the project, Catalonia, Lombardy and Rhône-Alpes.

14 Cooke, Philip and Morgan, Kevin, The Associational Economy: Firms, Regions and Innovation, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1998 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Garmise, Shari O., ‘Economic Development Strategies in Emilia-Romagna’, in Rhodes, Martin (ed.), The Regions and the New Europe: Patterns in Core and Periphery Development, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1995.Google Scholar

15 B. Kohler-Koch, 1996, op. cit.; Kenis, Patrick and Schneider, Volker, ‘Policy Networks and Policy Analysis: Scrutinizing a New Analytical Toolbox’, in Marin, Bernd and Mayntz, Renate (eds), Policy Networks: Empirical Evidence and Theoretical Considerations, Boulder, Colo., Westview Press, 1991 Google Scholar; Windhoff-Heritier, Adrienne, ‘Policy Network Analysis: A Tool for Comparative Political Research’, in Keman, Hans (ed.), Comparative Politics: New Directions in Theory and Method, Amsterdam, VU University Press, 1993 Google Scholar; Peterson, J., ‘Decision-making in the European Union: Towards a Framework for Analysis’, Journal of European Public Policy, 2:1 (1995), pp. 6993.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16 Hix, Simon, ‘The Study of the European Union II: The “New Governance” Agenda and its Rival’, Journal of European Public Policy, 5:1 (1998), pp. 3865.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17 Knoke, David and Kuklinski, James H., Network Analysis, California, Sage Publications, 1982.Google Scholar

18 Metcalfe, L., ‘Designing Precarious Partnerships’, in Nystrom, P. C. and Starbuck, W. H. (eds), Handbook of Organizational Design, Vol. 1, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1981.Google Scholar

19 Marin, Bernd, ‘Introduction’, in Marin, B. (ed.), Governance and Generalized Exchange: Self-Organizing Policy Networks in Action, Frankfurt, Campus Verlag, 1990.Google Scholar

20 C. J. Paraskevopoulos, 2001, op. cit.

21 Granovetter, Mark, ‘Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness’, American Journal of Sociology, 91:3 (1985), pp. 481510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22 Axelrod, R., The Complexity of Cooperation: Agent-Based Models of Competition and Collaboration, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1997, pp. 4068.Google Scholar

23 Putnam, Robert D., with Leonardi, R. and Nanetti, R., Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1993.Google Scholar

24 Coleman, James, Foundations of Social Theory, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1990, Chs. 8, 12.Google Scholar

25 James Coleman, 1990, op. cit.

26 It should be noted that generalized reciprocity as a form of social capital constitutes the most important prerequisite for the process of political exchange. Given that the norm is rooted in the complexities of social exchange in the broad sense, it is considered as a crucial function in which the process of political exchange is embedded. Thus, in the field of regional policy, generalized reciprocity, by sustaining the process of political exchange among the actors at the regional level, is viewed as a precondition for network creation and institution-building (see Cooke and Morgan, 1998, op. cit.)

27 Ostrom, Elinor, ‘A Behavioral Approach to the Rational Choice Theory of Collective Action’, American Political Science Review, 92:1 (1998), pp. 122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28 Ostrom, Elinor, ‘Self-organization and Social Capital’, Industrial and Corporate Change, 4:1 (1995), pp. 131–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29 J. Coleman, 1990, op. cit.

30 Rose, Richard, ‘Inheritance Before Choice in Public Policy’, Journal of Theoretical Politics, 2:3 (1990), pp. 263–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Thelen, Kathleen and Steinmo, Sven, ‘Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Politics’, in Steinmo, Sven, Thelen, Kathleen and Longstreth, Frank (eds), Structuring Politics: Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Analysis, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992 Google Scholar; and Paul Pierson, Increasing Returns, Path Dependence and the Study of Politics, Jean Monnet Chair Papers 44, Florence, European University Institute (RSC).

31 March, James and Olsen, Johan, Rediscovering Institutions: The Organizational Basis of Politics, New York, Free Press, 1989 Google Scholar; DiMaggio, Paul and Powell, Walter, ‘Introduction’, in Powell and DiMaggio (eds), The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1991.Google Scholar

32 See Cooke and Morgan, 1998, op. cit.

33 Sabel, Charles, ‘Studied Trust: Building New Forms of Cooperation in a Volatile Economy’, in Swedberg, R. (ed.), Explorations in Economic Sociology, New York, Russell Sage Foundation, 1993.Google Scholar

34 R. Rose, 1990, op. cit.; Pierson, Paul, ‘The Path to European Integration: A Historical Institutionalist Analysis’, Comparative Political Studies, 29:2 (1996), pp. 123– 63CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bulmer, Simon, ‘New Institutionalism and the Governance of the Single European Market’, Journal of European Public Policy, 5:3 (1998), pp. 365–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35 Finnemore, Martha, ‘Norms, Culture, and the world Politics: Insights from Sociology’s Institutionalism’, International Organization, 50:2 (1996), pp. 325–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

36 C. Sabel’s notion of studied trust constitutes his rather optimistic answer to the question. Studied trust refers to a ‘kind of consensus and the associated forms of economic transactions’ that theoretically result from ‘associative’ or ‘cooperative’ or ‘autopoietic’ — that is self-creating — ‘reflexive’ systems. These are systems in which ‘the logic governing the development of each of the elements is constantly reshaped by the development of all the others: the parts reflect the whole and vice versa’. Sabel’s optimistic view on the creation of trust is based on the hypothesis that ‘trust is a constitutive — hence in principle extensive — feature of social life’. See Sabel, 1993, op. cit.

37 C. J. Paraskevopoulos, 2001, op. cit.

38 Objective 1 regions are the less developed (GDP below 75 per cent of the Community average). In the case of Greece, Ireland and Portugal the entire country qualifies as an Objective 1 region. Leonardi, R., Convergence, Cohesion and Integration in the European Union, London, Macmillan Press, 1995.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

39 See M. Storper, 1995, op. cit.

40 C. Sabel, 1994, op. cit.

41 C. J. Paraskevopoulos, 1998, 2001, op. cit.

42 C. J. Paraskevopoulos, 1998, 2000, op. cit.; Mouzelis, Nicos P., ‘Greece in the Twenty-first Century: Institutions and Political Culture’, in Constas, Dimitri and Stavrou, Theofanis G. (eds), Greece Prepares for the Twenty-first Century, Washington, DC, Johns Hopkins University Press and Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1995.Google Scholar

43 The region’s three year (1989–91) GDP average in PPS (Purchasing Power Standard) per habitant was 52.2 compared with the country’s average of 48.1 while its unemployment rate was low in 1993 (3.6%) when compared with the country’s average of 7.8%. See CEC, Competitiveness and Cohesion: Trends in the Regions, Fifth Periodic Report on the Social and Economic Situation and Development of the Regions in the Community, Brussels, 1994.

44 Indicative figures: three-year average in PPS per inhabitant is just 35.2 compared with the 48.1 country average, while its 1993 unemployment rate is one of the highest in Greece, 9.0%. See CEC, 1994, ibid.

45 Kardasis, V., Syros: Crossroads of Eastern Mediterranean (1832–1857), Athens, Cultural Foundation of the National Bank of Greece, 1987.Google Scholar

46 The network analysis is based on extensive fieldwork involving around 70 semi-structured in-depth interviews with representatives of the most prominent institutional actors in the regions concerned, and the UCINET IV Version 1.00, has been used (S. P. Borgatti, M. G. Everett and L. C. Freeman, Columbia, Analystic Technologies, 1992).

47 Getimis, P., ‘Development Issues and Local Regulation: The Case of the Dodecanese Prefecture’, in Psychopedis, K. and Getimis, P. (eds), Regulation of Local Problems [in Greek], Athens, Foundation for Mediterranean Studies, 1989.Google Scholar

48 Inglehart, R., ‘The Renaissance of Political Culture’, American Political Science Review, 82:4 (1988), pp. 1203–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

49 The ‘VOLMED’ research project is financed by the EU Commission (DG V) and focuses on registering the voluntary organizations in the Mediterranean countries. The research for Greece has been undertaken by the Panteion University of Social Sciences (Dept. of Social Statistics); coordinator: Associate Prof. Ms Stasinopoulou.

50 Evridike, Siphnaeou, Lesbos: Economic and Social History (1840–1912) [in Greek], Athens, Trochalia, 1996.Google Scholar

51 In Greece, since 1968, there have been two communist parties: one reformist and Euro-communist that has more or less followed the trajectory of the Italian PCI and currently participates in the Coalition of the Left, and the hard-core more powerful party, which was well-disposed towards the former Soviet Union.