ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the contributions of partnership organising in Danish LEADER local action groups (LAGs) to democracy from the viewpoint of aggregative and integrative democratic theory. The most important players in the LEADER programmes over the years have been the LAG board members. Thus, the core of the LEADER method is the establishment of a LAG partnership consisting of representatives from the public, private and voluntary sectors. The LAG partnership holds decision-making power, creates a development plan and provides project grants to project holders; it can also initiate its own projects. In addition to the partnership concept, the LEADER method consists of six other key concepts: bottom-up approaches, area-based strategies, cross-sector/integrated approaches, innovation, cooperation, and networking. The LEADER method for rural development has been the backbone of what has come to be known as the New Rural Paradigm (OECD 2006), in which the focus is on area-based/territorial rural development rather than sector-based rural development.
