PhD thesis defence by Lorenzo Mascioli
Since the turn of the millennium, territorial inequalities have deepened across Europe, defying expectations of convergence and reigniting scholarly and policy interest in uneven development. Recent debates have focused on how individuals and communities respond to territorial divergence – notably through migration and political behavior. This doctoral thesis examines a third form of response: how communities strive to foster development through public policy.
Specifically, the thesis investigates why the performance of development policy varies so markedly across Europe. It asks what drives differences in the capacity of local communities to: mobilise resources for development policy (mobilisation); use resources to design and execute interventions (implementation); and harness interventions to activate long-term development processes (effectiveness).
The prevailing explanation attributes policy performance to the capacity of local institutions. However, this view overlooks how the processes of networkisation and projectification that have intensified since the 2000s have generated local governance systems – relational configurations through which development policy is organised within each territory – that are ontologically and analytically distinct from local institutions. I theorise that these systems shape policy performance both independently of and in interaction with underlying institutional frameworks.
Three empirical studies test these hypotheses in the context of contemporary Italy. Each examines one dimension of policy performance – mobilisation, implementation, or effectiveness – using distinct samples and methods for data collection and analysis. Collectively, these studies mitigate the trade-off commonly found in empirical research on local governance between internal validity – capturing governance systems as relational constructs – and external validity – comparing them systematically across space.
Across all three studies, the configuration of local governance systems emerges as a key determinant of development policy performance. Two dimensions appear especially consequential: policy embeddedness – the extent to which interventions are fragmented into autonomous projects or integrated into broader frameworks – and ownership diffusion – the extent to which responsibilities are concentrated or shared across actors. The thesis concludes by advancing a normative framework in which performance improvements are pursued through deliberate (re)configuration of local governance systems along these two dimensions.
Lorenzo Mascioli is a doctoral researcher in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute (EUI). His cross-disciplinary and multi-method research examines why local communities differ in their capacity to leverage public policy to foster local development – specifically, their capacity to mobilise resources for development policy, use these resources to design and execute interventions, and harness these interventions to activate self-sustaining development processes. During his PhD, Lorenzo has held teaching positions at the EUI’s Florence School of Transnational Governance and visiting positions at Sciences Po (Paris) and Princeton University. Before beginning his doctoral studies, he served as Policy Advisor for Financial Inclusion and Capability at HM Treasury in London.