Partisan Pork Barrel in Multilevel Systems: The Constituency-Level Allocation of European Regional Development Funds in Italy and France
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2015-12-11
Author(s)
Abstract
Recent years have witnessed increasing scholarly interest in the domestic
use of European Union (EU) Structural Funds for pork barrel
projects. While regional governments are commonly ascribed a significant
role in the domestic implementation of the EU budget, their
influence on the local allocation of Structural Funds should be limited
when regions lack own revenues necessary to co-finance Structural
Funds. Hence, under unitary government, national governments
should be in control of the political targeting of local projects. Using
a statistical analysis of an original data set on local Structural Funds
allocations across 202 local districts and 41 regions in Italy and France
from 2007 to 2013, we demonstrate how national governments use EU
funds for pork barrel projects in semi-presidential and parliamentary
systems. The results contribute to the literature on resource distribution
in the EU and further our understanding of the influence of
regional government on European and international policy outcomes.
use of European Union (EU) Structural Funds for pork barrel
projects. While regional governments are commonly ascribed a significant
role in the domestic implementation of the EU budget, their
influence on the local allocation of Structural Funds should be limited
when regions lack own revenues necessary to co-finance Structural
Funds. Hence, under unitary government, national governments
should be in control of the political targeting of local projects. Using
a statistical analysis of an original data set on local Structural Funds
allocations across 202 local districts and 41 regions in Italy and France
from 2007 to 2013, we demonstrate how national governments use EU
funds for pork barrel projects in semi-presidential and parliamentary
systems. The results contribute to the literature on resource distribution
in the EU and further our understanding of the influence of
regional government on European and international policy outcomes.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
No
Event Title
ECSA Suisse Annual Conference
Event Location
Zürich
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
234364