Abstract

The making of regional development policies in Italy, in the framework of EU Structural Funds and Cohesion Policies, had a deep and positive impact on public planning and management in the cultural field. An interesting reinvention of the public sector, at the central - state level, as well as at the regional and local ones, forced by the EU regulations, begun at the end of the Nineties and was particularly intense in the last 10 years. Institution and capacity building, dialogue with the stakeholder, sound use of data, statistics and indicators, consensus building, forms of bottom-up planning and improved periphery-centre interactions are some of the main results of that experience. Special mention deserve the widespread adoption of a culture of evaluation and the mechanism allocating a significant amount of financial resources for rewarding the best performing administrations.