The Boundaries of Regional Distinctiveness: Why Sub-State Governments Diverge (and Converge) in Multi-Level Systems

Regional governments may live under the same constitutional architecture, but they rarely speak the same political language. This paper examines why sub-state governments in multilevel, federal, and quasi-federal systems often develop different policy priorities and ideological orientations, even though they operate within broadly similar constitutional frameworks. Much writing on federalism has drawn attention to the opportunities that decentralisation provides for regional diversity, yet our comparative understanding of the conditions under which such differences emerge remains limited. This study seeks to contribute to that discussion by analysing how regional governments in several European federations define their policy agendas. The study draws on a broad comparative dataset of regional coalition agreements from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Belgium, which serve as key instruments through which sub-state executives communicate their policy priorities. Using a harmonised coding strategy based on the Comparative Manifesto Project, complemented by structured text analysis, the paper systematically maps regional issue emphases and socio-economic and socio-cultural positioning across cases. Building on theories of multilevel party politics, territorial policy divergence, and inter-regional policy diffusion, the paper develops and tests expectations regarding the sources of variation in regional agendas. Three explanatory dimensions are examined: (1) partisan composition and strategic choices of regional governing coalitions; (2) regional socio-economic contexts, such as prosperity levels and labour market structure; (3) territorial embeddedness, including geographical proximity and political neighbourhood effects that may foster similarity or policy learning. (4) variation in the institutional architecture of multilevel states, such as degrees of regional authority, intra-state asymmetries, and the distribution of competences, which structure the opportunity space for policy divergence. The comparative approach adopted here allows similarities and contrasts across multilevel states to be observed. In doing so, the paper aims to clarify the extent to which variation in regional agendas reflects the choices of political actors, the influence of structural conditions, or the operation of broader territorial dynamics within multilevel states. It sheds light on how decentralised governments use the room for manoeuvre provided to them, how they respond to the circumstances of their regions, and how they relate to the wider constellation of governments within the state. In this way, the paper seeks to deepen our understanding of how multilevel and federal systems operate in practice and of the forces that shape policy diversity within them. Besides, it enriches the study of territorial politics by placing policy outputs and agenda-setting at the centre of analysis.