Comparative Territorial Politics: Citizens, Parties, Elections and Governments in Multilevel States

Multilevel governance is evolving and contested. The integrity of the British devolved union and the supranational European Union (EU) were put into question over the last several years by popular referendums on nations’ continued membership. Yet, at the same time, deeper multilevel governance seems to be the answer for responding to nationalist demands for self-government and to govern the troubled economies of the Eurozone. Subnational autonomy continues to be at the source of variation between regions in the way in which they make policy and the way in which their governments are held accountable by electorates. More and more, place makes a difference to how people live, to the services they receive, to how they interact with public authorities, and to how they vote. This difference has also made it imperative for the constituent parts of states to coordinate their actions with each other and with the central government in order to ensure a consistency of approaches across the country. This Section invites panels and papers that seek to address these topics and that examine: how and why multilevel institutions have become contested, what differences multitiered government makes to political competition and public policy and how multilevel institutions work in practice.