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Regions and international aid : an inquiry on the origins of decentralized aid for development programs in two European regions

This dissertation explores the politics o f a region’s engagement in decentralized aid for development policies. Defined as the international development co-operation activities of sub-state units, decentralized aid for development has been perceived by the specialized literature as the incarnation of a major change in the normative agenda o f international development co-operation. However, despite the normative overtones o f the debate around decentralized aid for development, very little attention has been paid to the motives pushing regional and local administrations to engage in these kinds of policies. This dissertation aims to bridge this gap in the literature by devolving the analysis o f decentralized aid for development to the realm of regional politics. The main argument is structured as follows. Part I establishes the limits o f the decentralized aid puzzle. I distinguish two main ways of approaching regions’ engagement in decentralized aid policies. Firstly, the analysis o f the constituents decentralized aid as a political practice; Secondly, the analysis of decentralized aid as a political process. It is argued that if we are to unfold the politics behind regions* engagement in decentralized aid polices we have to focus on the second kind o f analysis. Part II and Part III analyse the politics of decentralized aid in the Basque country and Tuscany. Finally, in Part IV both cases are reassessed in a comparative perspective, describing the main features of the politics o f decentralized aid for development. The analysis of these cases shows how despite important differences in the nature o f policy outcome, both processes of the constitution o f decentralized aid policies share a number of features. Firstly, in both cases decentralized aid policies arise after mobilization on the part of NGOs operating in the territory. Secondly, both regions’ decentralized aid programs are launched in a context of institutional uncertainty, in which the limits of regional autonomy are not clearly stated. Thirdly, both cases show how the establishment of decentralized aid for development policies is linked to the process of construction of the region as a polity. In both cases decentralized aid serves the needs o f the regional agenda of foreign policy. What is more, decentralized aid is heavily influenced by the politics of region-building and the nature of both inter-institutional relations and the relations between institutions and the organizations in the civil society within the limits of the regional space.