"An excellent addition to our understanding of rural development and intergovernmental management. Its solid scholarship, enlightened conceptual framework, and clear writing style make it a welcome addition to the field of public policy and administration". -- B. J. Reed, University of Nebraska at Omaha.

One of the best examples of new governance can be found in the National and State Rural Development Councils (NRDC and SRDC), created in 1990 as the result of President Bush's Rural Development Initiative and called the Rural Development Partnership in the Clinton administration.

This book has been developed from a report of the cross-national PRIDE (Partnerships for Rural Integrated Development in Europe) research project. The research involved focusing on public and private sector rural development experience of six member states of the European Union, namely Finland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK.