Mitigating human agency in regional development: the behavioural side of policy processes

Abstract

In recent decades, regional development has seen a wave of collective policy-making processes such as the European smart specialization approach or participatory approaches to tourism strategy formulation. These processes are confronted by several challenges based on behavioural patterns related to human agency. This paper conceptualizes collective regional policy-making processes in a behavioural perspective. It argues that concepts known from behavioural economics can contribute to our understanding of the agency-related challenges in collective regional policy-making processes, and that mitigating the role of human agency can help overcome these behavioural challenges. Case studies from three Austrian provinces show how major challenges to collective policy-making processes can be explained behaviourally, and how these challenges can be countered by mitigating strategies that employ expertise, moderation, indirect participation, delegation of prioritization and evidence.