Local Democracy Put to the Test of Negotiated Development

One of the most remarkable aspects of the new development policies is the obligation placed upon the social actors to take concerted action for their implementation. We find a similar obligation in a great many European policies applied in the past ten years to agriculture (Regulation 2078/92 governing agri-environmental measures in 1992) or to rural areas (the Habitats Directive, also in 1992). This trend offers a concrete illustration of the ‘principle of subsidiarity’ (Millon-Delsol, 1993) or, more generally, points to the emergence of a new form of ‘governance’ tending to involve different parties from the public and private sectors faced with increasingly complex problems in the decision-making process. In every case, the determination to make consultation ¹ an integral part of the decision-making process is manifest and, irrespective of the position of the actors in this process, the search for a compromise or agreement goes far beyond mere procedural requirements.