The Spatial Reconfiguration of Public Policy in Multi-Level Systems

The gradual decentralization of authority over recent decades has encouraged sub-national authorities (regional and municipal governments) to use their powers and resources to develop distinct policy approaches to questions of economic development and social solidarity. Conversely, central governments preoccupied with ensuring the equal rights of citizens and the effective coordination of central policies have also attempted to steer them towards certain common objectives. This latter trend has been reinforced by the Great Recession, which ushered in an era of austerity during which central governments have sought to curtail the funding and activities of sub-national governments. These conflicting tendencies have engendered the spatial reconfiguration of public policy in multi-level systems, that is, a degree of territorial variation in the priorities, goals and instruments of public policy deployed by sub-national entities. The aim of the Joint Sessions Workshop is to study these outcomes. It examines the structural, institutional and political factors that have shaped the spatial variation in the set of public policies concerned with fostering economic development and social solidarity. The main questions that it aims to address are: how have recent trends in authority migration affected the distribution of power between central and sub-national governments? How have sub-national governments responded to their changing relationship with central governments? Have their priorities across different policy areas converged or diverged? And what set of factors explain these patterns? The panel welcome papers adopting a plurality of methods and approaches, with a preference for comparative case-studies and quantitative analyses, dealing with the policies of states, regions and municipalities in multi-level systems across different countries of the world.