The Rise of Regional Authority: A Comparative Study of 42 Democracies

Most countries around the globe have one or two levels of regional or intermediate government, yet we have little systematic idea of how much authority they wield, or how this has changed over time.

This book measures and explains the formal authority of intermediate or regional government in 42 advanced democracies, including the 27 EU member states. It tracks regional authority on an annual basis from 1950 to 2006. The measure reveals wide variation both cross-sectionally and over time. The authors examine four influences – functional pressures, democratization, European integration, and identity – to explain regionalization over the past half-century.

This unique and comprehensive volume will be a vital resource for students and scholars of comparative politics, public administration and public management, federalism, democratization, nationalism, and multilevel governance.

Liesbet Hooghe is Zachary Taylor Smith Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Chair in Multilevel Governance at the Free University of Amsterdam. She was a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute, Humboldt Visiting Fellow at the Wissenschaftszentrum für Sozialforschung in Berlin, and Fellow at the Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg in Delmenhorst, and held visiting professorships at Sciences Po, Konstanz, and Pompeu Fabra. She is the former chair of the European Politics and Society Organized Section of the American Political Science Association, and current president (2007–2009) of the European Union Studies Association.

Gary Marks is Burton–Craige Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Chair in Multilevel Governance at the Free University of Amsterdam. Marks has been National Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, Visiting Fellow at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, and Fellow at the Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg in Delmenhorst (Germany). He has held visiting professorships at Sciences Po, Konstanz University, the University of Twente, Pompeu Fabra, and the Hooker Visiting Professorship at McMaster University. In 1997–1999 Marks served as Chair of the European Community Studies Association.

Arjan H. Schakel is a Newton International Fellow at the University of Edinburgh (2009 - 2011) where he works on a project entitled 'Regional Reform and Territorialization of Party Systems'. Schakel is interested in federlaism, decentralization, regional government and regional party politics and has published several articles in journals such as Regional and Federal Studies, Acta Politica and Governance (forthcoming).