Evaluating the governance of a European program by identifying the types of overages based on the example of LEADER programs in France, Spain and Hungary: A problematic role for local institutional arrangements?

The evaluation of the governance of the implementation of the European LEADER approach was carried out in six case studies in France, Spain and Hungary using an analytical grid cross-referencing two complementary theoretical frameworks: the analysis of overages (i.e. the identification of the diverse effects of public policy) and learning phenomena. It was shown that the overages (especially institutional) of the LEADER approach were greater when the governance and management learning subsystems converged. Conversely, the overages remain more limited when the two systems diverge, which is often the case when the program is used as a tool by certain political or economic actors. Overall, these results underline some of the limitations of bottom-up and integrated programs such as LEADER, which are characterized by a relative non-linearity in their implementation.