Résumé
A growing body of literature questions the emergence of the project class within the community-led local initiatives of the European Union's LEADER programme (Kovach & Kucherova, 2006; Thuesen, 2010, Lukic & Obad, 2016, Lacquement et al., 2020). Their argument is that these new participatory modes of governance do not necessarily involve all local stakeholders in the development of local territories, but create or reinforce an elite. Lacquement and Chevalier (2016) pointed out that the cohesion of LAGs depends on the active engagement of LAG managers, who may tend to work more with local politicians, whom they see as key actors, than with other actors in the LAG territory. Their role is also to act as a liaison between the local community and the regional and national authorities to ensure that the needs of the local community are taken into account in the development process, as LAG managers are responsible for identifying and selecting projects that are in line with the local development strategy (Pollermann et al., 2020) and for managing the implementation of these projects (Navarro et al., 2020). Furthermore, in order to ensure that projects are delivered on time and within budget (Tolic & Markotic, 2013), the literature emphasises the importance of managers having a strong background in project management, budgeting and financial management.