Regional dimensions of rural development in Romania

Abstract

The National Programme of Rural Development for the period 2014-2020, established the modalities of how to use the measures of the LEADER program, by its already implemented infrastructure, as a certain number of Local Action Groups (LAGs) in each county. This paper presents the relative position of Romanian counties and of administrative development regions, in 2012, depending on the rural development stage, and considering also the managerial approach through the LEADER program, until 2014. The results are useful for the managers at the county level and at the administrative region level, but also at the national level, preoccupied with the implementation of rural development programs. Using multivariate methods of descriptive analysis: Principal Components Analysis and classifying with Cluster method, in SPSS software, our paper offers also a scientific approach for comparative analyses. The conclusions are formulated based on the analyses "in the mirror" at counties’ level, and at the administrative regions’ level, using the results obtained with the two descriptive methods.