Territorial Cohesion of Tomorrow: A Path to Cooperation or Competition?

Explicit reference was made to “Territorial Cohesion” in the draft Constitution for Europe. The concept has recently been celebrated by many stakeholders of territorial development policies, including the European community of planners. Territorial Cohesion does not seem to have received any official definition, but it is clearly meant to aim at some sort of “spatial justice” while promoting integration between EU sector policies that have a territorial impact. Seemingly a consensual principle: who in Europe would object to a better coherence between various EU policies and the provision of reasonably equal standards of living to all EU citizens, regardless of their area of settlement? Yet a close examination of the current political debate suggests that very divergent views are being expressed as to what Territorial Cohesion exactly entails in practical terms. Two main different policy approaches seem to emerge in this debate. The first approach tends to equate Territorial Cohesion to a range of positive discrimination steps in favour of various penalised areas. Interest groups, in particular lobbies for specific regions, have proved influential in propagating this conception. In the area of regional policy, this approach embodies the neo-corporatist, depoliticised line of the contemporary political culture. It is primarily inspired by financial considerations and a competitive zero-sum game scenario: regions of a specific category should increase their share of the EU funding at the expense of the others. The opposite approach places much more emphasis on the need for integrated territorial planning strategies and the integration of EU policies. Its proponents are the heirs of the post-war urban and regional planning tradition. They strive to revive the politicised and rationalist ideology of the Enlightenment, based on the notion of public interest. They raise awareness about the steadily growing interdependence between regions and cities of Europe and advocate a cooperative approach focusing on issues of transnational relevance and win-win situations. This rather idealistic cooperative approach seems to be less influential than its rival, and currently confined to a relatively small group of planning professionals. The question remains: which of the two models—interregional competition or cooperation—will finally succeed in shaping the EU cohesion policy?     

European Union Competition Policy and the European Territorial Cohesion Agenda: An Impossible Reconciliation? State Aid Rules and Public Service Liberalization through the European Spatial Planning Lens

The territorial and spatial planning impacts of European Union (EU) economic and competition policies have remained under-researched in the field of European spatial planning, in contrast to other EU policy fields. This briefing explores how two elements of the EU competition policy, the regulation of “state aid” and the liberalization of “services of general interest (SGI)”, have significant implications for the pursuit of the objective of territorial cohesion through spatial planning and territorial development policies at different scales. The paper first reviews the development of the concept of territorial cohesion in the EU discourse and policy agenda since the mid-1990s, as well as the contribution of public services (Services of General Interest, or SGI in EU jargon) to it. It, then, reviews how the EU state aid rules and liberalization policies affect the state's ability to intervene (i) in support of sub-national territories which are lagging behind or suffering decline, and (ii) in the provision of public services across the national territory, specifically in peripheral regions or areas where the provision is not catered for by the market. The conclusion of the paper outlines the additional challenges to the pursuit of territorial cohesion in the EU posed by the post-2008 economic crisis and suggests avenues for future research.     

The Lisbonization of EU Cohesion Policy: A Successful Case of Experimentalist Governance?

This article traces the emergence of a new “experimentalist governance architecture” in EU Cohesion policy and assesses its effectiveness. Following trends in other EU policy areas, the core features of the architecture are the joint setting of objectives between EU institutions and the Member States, (semi-)autonomous implementation by the Member States and regions, the use of performance reporting and peer review mechanisms at the EU level and the periodic revision of policy objectives. The new architecture—characterized by a hybrid mix of soft and hard new modes of governance—has been instrumental in driving policy and governance change in the 2007–2013 strategies and delivery arrangements, although a direct and exclusive “EU-driven effect” is not always easy to discern. More fundamentally, the effects on mutual learning have so far been weak and are unlikely to improve unless a more structured and robust assessment and peer review process is introduced.     

Advocacy Coalitions,Policy Stability,and Policy Change in China: The Case of Birth Control Policy, 1980–2015

This study used the advocacy coalition framework (ACF) to explain stability and change in China's national birth control policy from 1980 to 2015. We found that policy remained stable, despite internal and external changes to the relevant subsystem, from 1980 to 2013. The stability was explained by the dominant advocacy coalition's mobilization of considerable resources to defend its policy core beliefs. Policy changes in 2013 and 2015 were caused by a combination of external and internal perturbations, in addition to policy-oriented learning and advocacy by two expert-led minority advocacy coalitions. The case showed that the openness and plurality of China's policy processes had increased over time but were still limited in comparison with those in Western democracies. The case analysis confirmed two policy change hypotheses and suggested a mechanism for policy change: a hierarchically superior jurisdiction is more likely to impose a major policy change when it learns that the change is an adaptation to internal and external perturbations and that adopting the change will serve the jurisdiction's political interests.     

Urban–Rural Interactions in Latvian Changing Policy and Practice Context

Abstract

This article aims at a better comprehension of urban–rural interactions as a spatial concept and its utilization for spatial and regional policies. Based on literature review and on interviews with planners and experts, the article explores how the concept of urban–rural interactions is defined, characterized and structured. The understanding of urban and rural, how they are connected provides a basis for capturing complexities and development of urban–rural interactions. The study, reviews urban–rural policies and practises in Latvia. Contemporary built-up areas and lifestyles are influenced by imprints of past urban–rural interactions. Aspects of contextuality, cross-sectorality and informality have to be taken into consideration when urban–rural interactions are applied to the policy field. The article introduces a typology to capture both the diversity and particularity of places in terms of urban–rural connectivity. An insight is given how the current Latvian local government territorial structure can contribute to building target-oriented urban–rural partnerships.     

Foreign Policy Reviews and Canada's Trade Policy: 1968–2009

Governments, upon assuming office, most often seek to refocus foreign policy according to the preferences of the new prime minister and the primary means of accomplishing this has been to release a white paper outlining the priorities of the new government. This article will demonstrate that discussions of trade issues reinforce existing studies questioning the innovation and impact of white papers. The purpose of this analysis, however, is not to dwell on the utility of white papers and foreign policy reviews but instead search for a deeper understanding of why trade policy is discussed in an unoriginal and superficial manner. The focus of the article is on the period from 1968 to the present.     

The Structural Funds in Andalusia for the Programming Period 2014–2020: Time for Tightening Belts

During the period 2014–2020 it will be the first time since Spain joined the European Economic Community that the Southern region of Andalusia will not be considered as one of the Objective 1 priority areas for the European Regional Policy. This paper analyses the economic impact of the foreseeable withdrawal of an important amount of European Structural Funds in the region. Our point is to develop a dynamic general equilibrium model to assess, under different simulation scenarios, the effects of the removal of this funding on the main regional economic indicators, specially focusing on GDP growth, a key variable for the future of the region.     

Territorial Impact Assessment of European Draft Directives—The Emergence of a New Policy Assessment Instrument

European Union directives, along with their transposing arrangements in EU member states, can have unanticipated and sometimes undesirable impacts on certain regions and places. These include impacts on the use of space (e.g. new infrastructure or sprawl), governance, and on wider social, economic or environmental dimensions. Although ex-ante assessment of the potential impacts of EU initiatives has been carried out since 2002 through the European Commission's Impact Assessment procedure and also through national equivalents in some member states, important impacts are still overlooked, frequently because of their territorially heterogeneous nature within and between EU member states. This paper presents the results of the ESPON EATIA research project, in which a new territorial impact assessment methodology was developed for national and regional administrations in EU member states in order to inform their national positions during the negotiation of European draft directives and potentially other policy proposals.     

The European Far North of Russia and Its Territorial Constructions in the Sixteenth–Twenty-First Centuries

Abstract

This article addresses the problem of the homogeneity and structure of the identity of the European Far North of Russia. The author comes to the conclusion that the structure of this territory has been determined since the sixteenth century by a rift between the Kola North and the Arkhangelsk North. While this rift deteriorated or was partially healed at different times, the differentiation of the European Far North of Russia into two territorial segments persisted over the periods of Muscovy, the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union. Although the Kola Peninsula was integrated for two centuries (1708–1921) into the vast province with a centre in the city of Arkhangelsk, it not only preserved features of its identity, but in fact managed to strengthen them, which eventually led to the administrative separation of the Kola North from the Arkhangelsk Province. The development of the two northern territories has been accompanied by competition, which is still there to a large extent. The phenomenon of the division of the Russian Far North in two parts is treated as a consequence of the importance which meridional strategic ties between the centre and the outlying northern areas acquired in the Russian State, in contrast to the weaker latitudinal peripheral ties between the provinces.     

New Spatial Patterns and Territorial–Administrative Structures in the European Union: Reflections on Eastern Europe

Abstract

Spatial patterns and territorial–administrative structures in Eastern Europe are a mix of historical?territorial path-dependencies influenced by the current path-creating policies. Since the early 2000s, the European Union (EU) policies, practices and challenges have concerned also Eastern Europe. This article discusses spatial patterns and territorial–administrative structures in theory, illustrates their practices and presents scenarios for their future in the EU contexts. The Europeanization of spatial policy and planning and the territorial–administrative structure harmonization are the key current trends. The transposition and implementation of the EU spatial policy mechanisms and practices in Eastern Europe are influenced by contextual path-dependent legacies and the uncertain long-term future of the EU. Conditionality as governmentality and relational regions open new perspectives to territorial dynamics in the EU and Eastern Europe.     

Two Centuries of Russian Sámi Policy: Arrangements for Autonomy and Participation Seen in Light of Imperial,Soviet and Federal Indigenous Minority Policy 1822–2014

Abstract

This article reviews arrangements for Russian Sámi self-government during the Late Imperial (1822–1917), Soviet (1917–1991) and Federal (1992–) Eras of Russian history, comparing them to developments in the country's general indigenous minority policy. Since the Soviet Era, indigenous minority policy has been delimited to a subset of the country's actual indigenous nations – smaller groups traditionally involved in certain rural economic activities. State paternalism, the framing of indigenous minority policy as giving aid to weak groups, is a constant trait of Russian indigenous minority policy. This paternalism has been channelled towards different goals at different times – the building of Communist nations, assimilation, or traditionalist preservationism. Indigenous minority policy has generally been weakly institutionalized, and its interests come into conflict with stronger actors who anchor their political activity in northern economic development and state security. Different forms of territorial autonomy have been practiced throughout the period, non-territorial arrangements becoming more common only in the Federal Era. Russian Sámi politics generally match the national trends but are a case of particularly weak indigenous autonomy and participation. A very case-specific phenomenon is the Federal Era conflict over whether or not to import the Nordic Sámi Parliament model. Case-specifics are explained by the weak demographic position of the Russian Sámi, the lack of any significant symbolic connection between the province and its indigenous people, and the border-proximity and border-transcendence of the Sámi people, which has repeatedly been used to frame their activism as a security concern.     

Substantiating the cohesion of the post-cold war US–Japan alliance

Notwithstanding current disarray, the post-cold war US–Japan alliance has enjoyed its most cohesive status in its history. Japan altered its passive cold war alliance policy and became a more active and equal partner with the United States. Even though there exist many explanations of what has caused this cohesiveness, there is hardly any attempt to substantiate the level of alliance cohesion itself. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate the cohesion of this alliance by employing concrete operational indicators: homogeneity in goals, threat perception, strategic compatibility and command structure. By investigating how these operational indicators have changed over time, the author proves substantially that the post-cold war US–Japan alliance has developed more cohesively.