Experimental governance in ‘trapped’ regions? What can and cannot be done in Europe’s periphery

Quality of governance has become one of the key concerns in academic and policy debates on the future of regional development policies. This is because a significant amount of evidence has emerged that it is one of the key factors (if not the key factor) hindering the development of Europe’s lagging regions. Notwithstanding our growing concern with this issue, there is still limited knowledge about the reasons why low quality of governance persists in some places, despite decades of European integration and various initiatives aimed at improving institutions. At the same time, solutions to the problem of weak institutions often revolve around innovative and resource-intensive ideas, such as experimental governance. This paper will contribute to these debates by examining the limitations of new governance approaches in places with weak institutional settings, through the case studies of Valencia (Spain) and Piemonte (Italy). It argues that these limitations are partly about the characteristics of governments in these places, but partly also about the characteristics of the users of such policies.