Political Core-Periphery Dynamics in the EU’s Rural Development: Assessing the Impact of LAG Escartons in the Waldensian and Occitan Valleys

Politics and policies do not happen in a vacuum. Yet, Political Science has traditionally underestimated their spatial dimension. This neglect appears particularly paradoxical when exploring the politics of (Rural) Development policies, which explicitly address uneven relations between central and peripheral places. Focusing on the political, rather than economic, dimensions of peripherality, this paper investigates how Local Action Groups (LAGs), i.e., EU-sponsored local governance partnerships that implement community-led development strategies by coordinating public, private, and civil actors within multi-level governance (MLG) systems, mediate core–periphery political dynamics within the EU’s Rural Development policy. Taking the case of LAG Escartons in the Waldensian and Occitan Valleys of Piedmont, Italy, this study explores whether the LAG reduces or reinforces core-periphery political dynamics in the Waldensian and Occitan Valleys. Theoretically, the contribution combines core-periphery and MLG theories to conceptualise political core-periphery dynamics. Accordingly, it describes peripherality as a configuration of political and institutional asymmetries (e.g., unequal distributions of authority, resources, and recognition) structured across governance scales. Empirically, it draws on a qualitative, longitudinal case study covering 23 years of LAG activity, integrating document analysis with fieldwork, including interviews and participant observation. Analytically, to bridge qualitative interpretation and structured assessments of core-periphery political dynamics, the study employs an original Weberian Ideal-Type scoreboard, operationalised through a set of indicators that capture degrees of core dependency and endogenous participatory autonomy in governance. The findings show that LAG Escartons occupies an intermediate position between hierarchical dependency and participatory autonomy. While regulatory and financial constraints imposed by higher tiers in the EU MLG system continue to limit local discretion, the LAG’s administrative culture, reflexivity, and participatory practices enable forms of creative adaptation and partial empowerment. Rather than simply reinforcing or reducing core–periphery political asymmetries, the LAG hybridises them, functioning as a negotiated space between top-down policy frameworks and bottom-up initiatives. Consequently, the paper contributes to debates on territorial governance by demonstrating the value of integrating core–periphery perspectives into MLG scholarship and reconfiguring core-periphery dynamics also from a political, rather than purely economic, perspective. It reframes peripherality as a relational governance condition shaped by the interaction between institutional hierarchies and local agency, with implications for the political design and democratic legitimacy of decentralised development policies in MLG polities.