Leader in Germany and the Discourse of Autonomous Regional Development

The leader programme in Germany has built on the ideas and approaches of independent rural initiatives that have crystallized in a rural movement for autonomous regional development. Since the mid‐1980s,ideas such as these have found resonance in regional development programmes in some West German federal states.The implementation of leader projects in West Germany can be characterized by the institutionalization and neutralization of the approaches of the independent movements. L eader 's catalytic role has not yet taken place to the same extent in East Germany where, after the unification in 1990,a rapid growth of local and regional development projects has been observed. Although leader has only adopted these in part, one can still project that official, institutional project sponsorship seems inevitably to undermine the innovative, independent and critical character of these rural development initiatives. The critical factors for the assessment of leader projects are the criteria of innovation and participation that play a central role in the community initiative. It can be concluded that the criteria of innovation are insufficient to direct the innovation process in a direction of sustainable rural development.