ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on concepts discussed in this book. The book examines the portraying of short-termist states and responses in various arenas and along various dimensions of the phenomenon as such, rather than a progress towards a cause-and-effect analysis. The phenomenon is too multifarious to be put into an operational or rationalistic model. There is also a quest for a more systematic comparative approach, taking its point of departure in the differences between political systems and traditions. In business studies, short-termism has been attributed to the current global capital markets and its appetite for fast earnings, but empirically this proposition has been hard to corroborate. The European Union is obviously in a special position regarding short-termism. Policy-related conclusion to be drawn from the contributions is that there are clear potentials in programmes like Leader provided that they are supplemented by active attempts to overcome the constraints of the project state' and administrative short-termism.
