Territory Politics Governance· 2026Q1
Last-resort Europe in rural Italy: territorial vulnerability and conditional delegation of EU competencies
- 0citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
In Italy's most vulnerable rural areas, citizens show 'last-resort support' for the EU, exhibiting lower Euroscepticism and greater willingness to delegate powers, especially in sovereign domains, when high vulnerability combines with high rurality.
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Key points
- Vulnerable rural Italian areas exhibit 'last-resort support' for the EU.
- This support is characterized by lower Euroscepticism and higher willingness to delegate EU powers.
- Delegation willingness is particularly pronounced in sovereignty-related domains.
- The pattern emerges where high territorial vulnerability coincides with high rurality.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
In Italy’s structurally fragile rural peripheries, citizens do not simply reject the European Union (EU); in the most vulnerable of these territories, they exhibit what we term ‘last – resort support’. Drawing on post-2024 electoral survey data linked to municipal indicators of vulnerability and rurality, we show that the most fragile rural areas exhibit lower levels of institutional Euroscepticism and a greater willingness to delegate power to Brussels, particularly in sovereignty-related domains. This pattern emerges specifically where high vulnerability coincides with high rurality. We document this territorially specific configuration of conditional delegation as a descriptive form of last-resort support, contributing to debates on territorial politics, multilevel governance and the geography of EU discontent.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Territory Politics Governance, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
General Agricultural and Biological SciencesAgricultural and Biological Sciences