DOES EUROPEAN-COMMUNITY REGIONAL POLICY EMPOWER THE REGIONS

A central goal of the 1980s reforms gf the European Community's region al development policy was to contribute to an increase in the discreti onary authority of sub-national decision-makers in the Community's mem ber states. This article assesses the degree to which this goal was at tained through comparative studies of selected French and Italian regi ons. It concludes that only in those regions in which timely policy en trepreneurship on the part of regional-level elected leaders coincided with the pre-existence of a territorial policy Community for economic development did the transfer of resources from the Community contribu te to regional empowerment.