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The policy recommendations refer to the implementation of rural development policy measures in Poland. These recommendations might be useful for policy makers of the Polish government, specifically for representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MINROL), for policy makers in pre- accession countries planning to implement LEADER-type policy measures, for members of the EU Commission dealing with rural development policy, and for NGOs promoting the implementation of rural development policy measures of the new rural paradigm.

In this study, I aimed at elaborating an analytical framework compatible with deve- lopment policy measures of the new rural paradigm. I have given a theoretical understanding of major problems in the rural development process as I emphasized the lack of certain local public goods as important development barriers for the economic development of rural areas. I further discussed whether policy measures of the new rural paradigm are suitable for overcoming such problems. The theore- tical considerations were tested within case studies conducted in three different Polish rural regions in 2005.

Only when Poland joined the EU in 2004, were the first policy measures of the new rural paradigm implemented, whereas the implementation of the most famous representative of these policy measures, the Community Initiative LEADER, started within pilot projects between 2005 and 2006. That is why I was unable to make use of important results of LEADER in Poland while conducting the empiri- cal research for this study in 2005. Therefore, in this monograph I analyzed rural development partnerships in Poland, which were based on the same characteristics as those of LEADER, as they involve local government members, members of local NGOs and local businesses in the rural development process as equal partners. All three case studies present successful examples of rural partnerships which are able to overcome crucial development problems that are characteristic for Polish rural areas. The success of the partnership resulted mainly from the implementation of institutional arrangements that induce inhabitants to contribute jointly to the provision of certain local public goods, which are necessary for an economic and social development in the respective regions.

In his discussion on local public goods in rural areas, PETRICK (2007b) concludes inter alia as follows: "After all, the question is not whether the state should provide public goods or not, but how complementarities between different institutional

arrangements, notably various layers of government, market and community, can be combined best to achieve this end" (ibid., p. 17). This statement implies the ques- tion, which was essential for this study, namely: how rural development policy is able to contribute to the successful provision of different local public goods in rural areas? The case studies have shown that governmental action is successful and its results are sustainable, where it assisted local initiators in elaborating and implementing institutional arrangements capable of providing local public goods. This further includes the statement made by PETRICK (2007b) above, that is, to facilitate the creation of institutional arrangements for local public goods provision, which combine basic elements of all three governance structures in a way that closely responds to local conditions and needs.

Since the analyzed partnerships were successful in overcoming crucial develop- ment problems typical for Polish rural areas, local action groups (LAGs) that are supported by the Community Initiative LEADER and that are equal to the rural partnerships analyzed in the case studies, may show similar positive results in Poland. The LEADER approach itself combines all three governance structures mentioned above. It contains market elements (by forcing competition among LAGs for public funds), governmental levels (by involving local governments to repre- sent social and long-term aspects of local investments), and community (by invol- ving local actors in the local decision making process). According to my theo- retical and empirical considerations, the LEADER approach appears to be capable to facilitate local public goods provision in rural Poland and, therefore, to contribute to a sustainable development of rural areas. But still some further recommendations should be made to render policy measures of the new rural paradigm more eligible for responding to specific problems in Polish rural areas:

1) Training and inspiring of local leader personalities. In all three case studies, local leaders contributed crucially to the success of the local development projects. However, in addition to the skills they are naturally endowed with, leaders also have to be inspired and trained. Therefore, more efforts should be spent on the training of local leaders. In addition to basic bureaucratic and business skills, local leaders have to be instructed in organizing local associa- tions, in dealing with people, and in elaborating local development strategies. In order to not concentrate knowledge and skills on only a single local actor, it might be useful to train more than one person per municipality as well as to organize local trainings and workshops, promoting the idea of local partner- ships.

2) Creation of platforms to promote rural development initiatives in the com- munity. In addition to the LAGs, other platforms have also to be implemented to involve non-members in local initiatives and to enable local inhabitants to express ideas and needs. Moreover, these platforms have to be used for calling inhabitants’ attention to rural development programs and for illustrating suc- cessful examples of local development initiatives. In particular, the case study

in Dolina Strugu has shown that the lack of knowledge about rural development measures causes widespread reluctance to become involved in the local collec- tive actions.

3) Organization of trips to successful rural development projects to inspire local actors. Knowledge about rural development measures in general as well as about its application to crucial local development problems in particular was also missing among local partnership and local government members. Here, a greater number of organized trips to successful partnerships can supply those wants. Interviewees who already attended similar trips stated to have obtained important information, inspirations, and visions from the latter.

4) Provision of external monitoring and advice during the founding process of the partnerships. As discussed above, within the founding process of the partnerships in Dębrzno and Bałtów, it was very useful to receive valuable advice from the Environmental Partnership Foundation from Krakow on the organization of rural partnerships and the preparation of local development strategies. In section 4.5, I mentioned that the common elaboration of a local development strategy among local governments, private persons, and enter- prises was emphasized as an important success factor in two case studies. How- ever, it was also shown that the elaboration of such a strategy is often a long- term and tough process, which in many other cases of rural development initia- tives was not crowned with success. External monitoring, though, can facilitate this process by pointing out common interests and by structuring local deve- lopment problems and prospects. This external monitoring, as well as other financial and technical assistance for strategy development, can be provided by governmental or European funds. A public provision of those funds minimizes the probability of interaction problems on financial issues that could already emerge in the beginning of the strategy elaboration process.

5) Differentiation between general and local-based success factors. All three case study regions were based on specific local success factors, which cannot be easily transferred to other rural partnerships. For instance, the successful development of "Chmielnik Zdrój" definitely resulted from the positive expe- rience with cooperation that local initiators in Dolina Strugu had already made in the telephone co-operative. Also, the initial idea for the innovative approach of the telephone co-operative resulted from the previous contacts of Dolina Strugu’s inhabitants with an US American municipality that had a telephone co-operative with a similar approach. The same is true for Bałtów. There, the discovering of dinosaurs’ footprints and the idea to commercialize this discovery in terms of a Dinosaur park cannot be easily applied to other rural communes in Poland or elsewhere. But there are a few factors, which can be transferred to other rural regions. For example, the image of a region as a place for natural tourism, organic products or with unique characteristics can become marketable products by means of local brands. And furthermore, a market-based business

concept of those local brands or other local marketing concepts, e.g., for agricul- tural marketing cooperations increases flexibility in cases where producer asso- ciations would require a large number of members like in "Chmielnik Zdrój" or Bałtów. Moreover, in cases, where a lack of trust among inhabitants ham- pered individuals from cooperation, the implementation of local institutions, which increased the frequency of interaction between inhabitants, also improved local trust and resulted in a stronger cooperation among community members. That is why partnership projects on the local level, in addition to economic objectives, should first aim at increasing interaction between local inhabitants. 6) Facilitate access to capital by means of local credit funds. The case study in

Dębrzno has shown that a local business incubator, combined with the imple- mentation of a local credit fund, contributes successfully to the development of local businesses. Public guarantees constitute an important incentive for local inhabitants to found a credit fund that eases local businesses’ access to capital. While the state may define basic standards for a local credit fund, local partner- ships may also determine further locally-based requirements. On the one hand, the requirements should guarantee the sustainability of the fund. On the other hand, these local-based requirements should enable local businesses to receive utility through entering exchange. The constitutional economics theory thus proposes, quirements to local conditions. While banks in rural Poland often provide credits only at high interest rates20 or do not provide local businesses with loans at all due to the lack of collaterals, community relations, like trust, reputation or pride might reduce the trust problem among credit lenders and borrowers within local credit funds. Hence, local partnerships could also be intro- duced to the idea of local credit funds, and public guarantees would help them to realize those ideas in their local communities.