Eve Hepburn

The Rise and Fall of a ‘Europe of the Regions’

This article explores the diverse ways in which parties operating in regional contexts have responded to, interpreted, and used the imagery of a ‘Europe of the Regions’ to advance their territorial demands. It is demonstrated that parties have not had consistent positions on Europe, rather, they have exhibited a cyclical quality, moving back and forth in response to perceived opportunities for regional action in Europe. Whilst many parties were cautious of Europe in the late 1970s, by the early 1990s there was a convergence of regional party support for a ‘Europe of the Regions’. This goal was advocated by minority nationalist and state-wide parties alike, causing the former to moderate their claims and the latter to strengthen their territorial demands. However, growing frustration with the apparent neglect of regional interests in the European project caused parties to revert back to earlier or more Euro-sceptical positions in the late 1990s, heralding the decline and fall of a Europe of the Regions.

Policy Convergence, Transfer and Learning in the UK under Devolution

This paper explores the policy transfer and learning process within the UK since 1999, examining the conditions in which transfer takes place among central and devolved governments. We distinguish among concurrent policies, policy competition, coercive transfer and policy learning. Policy transfer can be more or less coercive and constrained, while policy learning is voluntary. Mechanisms for transfer include financial instruments, political parties, the civil service and policy communities. Transfer can take place from centre to periphery, from periphery to centre and across the periphery. There is also transfer at the European and international levels. As it is England that has tended to break with older policies, notably on public service provision, the pressure has been to follow its lead, with the devolved administrations resisting or conforming. The UK government has paid much less attention to possible learning from the devolved territories and sometimes has sought to insulate England from debates there, especially where politically sensitive matters or large resources are at stake. Learning among the devolved territories is only now really beginning.

The Neglected Nation: The CSU and the Territorial Cleavage in Bavarian Party Politics

This article examines the continuing salience of the territorial cleavage in Bavarian party politics. It does so through an exploration of the Christian Social Unions (CSU) mobilisation of Bavarian identity as part of its political project, which has forced other parties in Bavaria to strengthen their territorial goals and identities. Parties have articulated different constructions of ‘Bavaria’ to rival the CSUs dominant nation-building project. However, they have been unable to portray themselves as ‘standing up for Bavarian interests’ due to the constraints of the state-wide parties to which they belong. As an exclusively Bavarian party, the CSU has no such constraints. Indeed, the CSUs core aim of strengthening Bavarias position vis-à-vis the German federation may be viewed as akin to that of the Convergència i Unió in Catalonia, Spirit in Flanders or Plaid Cymru in Wales. Like these parties, the case of the CSU in Bavaria demonstrates that sub-state territorial mobilisation has as much to do with negotiating autonomy within the state as seceding from it. To that end, the CSU provides a valuable case of how a regionalist party operating within a multi-level political system has sought to influence the regional, state and European levels to obtain a comparative territorial advantage.

Immigration, Nationalism, and Politics in Scotland

Scotland has been vaunted for following a distinctive — and arguably progressive — path on policy issues within the United Kingdom (Bradbury and Mitchell, 2001; Keating, 2010). However, while key devolved policy issues such as education, healthcare, and environmental policy have received considerable attention (Paterson, 1997; Greer, 2005; McEwen, Bomberg and Swenden, 2010; Cairney, 2011), there is a notable research gap on reserved areas such as immigration. This is a key oversight given compelling evidence that Scotland is developing a distinctive approach to immigration, and in particular the social and political integration of migrants. Although immigration is reserved to Westminster, its impact on devolved policy issues has caused Scotland’s parties to take a stance on this issue. Markedly, the positions of Scottish parties have diverged considerably from the UK party norm.

A different appetite for sovereignty? Independence movements in subnational island jurisdictions

Local autonomy in a subnational jurisdiction is more likely to be gained, secured or enhanced where there are palpable movements or political parties agitating for independence in these smaller territories. A closer look at the fortunes, operations and dynamics of independence parties from subnational island jurisdictions can offer some interesting insights on the appetite for sovereignty and independence, but also the lack thereof, in the twenty-first century.

Small Worlds in Canada and Europe: A Comparison of Regional Party Systems in Quebec, Bavaria and Scotland

Quebec, Bavaria and Scotland are three regions nested within multi-level states. Each has a pronounced territorial identity and a strong stateless nationalist and regionalist party (SNRP), factors that have contributed to an important territorial cleavage in political life. This contribution explores the dynamics of these regional party systems in a comparative analysis, by revisiting the approach set out by David Elkins and Richard Simeon in their seminal work on Small Worlds. Three indicators of distinctive political ‘small worlds’, which were originally identified by Elkins and Simeon in 1980, are discussed and applied in the context of present-day regional politics in Canada and Europe. These are: (1) the (in)congruence of party systems and competition at the regional and state levels; (2) the adaptation of statewide parties to the regional level; and (3) the conduct of party competition on regional issues. Following an analysis of these issues in each of the cases, the concluding section considers the continuing relevance of the Small Worlds thesis for our understanding of regional party politics in Canada, Europe and beyond.

Multilevel Party Politics of Immigration: Territorial Rescaling and Party Competition

Immigration is one of the most pressing concerns in Western democracies, becoming a key source of polarization amongst political parties and public opinion (Boswell, 2003; Odmalm, 2012). However, while the integration of immigrants is increasingly managed at the sub-state regional level, as demonstrated by Ricard Zapata-Barrero and Fiona Barker in Chapter 2, thereby becoming an important issue in the agendas of sub-state territorial actors as we shall see below, studies on immigration have focussed almost exclusively on the central-or nation-state level. This limited state-level focus prohibits a full understanding of the party politics of immigration in multilevel states. This is because states are no longer (if they ever were) homogenous political entities with the same statewide parties competing on the same statewide policy issues across the entire space of a given country. Instead, we have witnessed a dramatic decentralization of powers to sub-state territories, which has enabled regional political actors to advance distinct sub-state policy agendas, leading to policy divergence across states (Loughlin, 2001; Keating, 2001). This process has been described as spatial or territorial ‘rescaling’, whereby power and authority is dispersed across several territorial levels within states (Keating, 2009). In response, political parties have themselves undergone degrees of territorial rescaling by transforming themselves from unitary organizations into decentralized multilevel creatures (Deschouwer, 2003; Hopkin, 2003; Bradbury and Mitchell, 2006; Thorlakson, 2006; Fabre, 2008; Detterbeck and Hepburn, 2010). As a result, sub-state regional branches of parties are allowed to

Dissent on the Periphery? Island Nationalisms and European Integration

Many scholars have identified stateless nationalist and regionalist parties (SNRPs) as ardent supporters of Europe. This support has been explained as a result of positive developments in supranational integration that convinced these actors that Europe could facilitate the achievement of their territorial demands. Other work, however, leads to an expectation that SNRPs that mobilise within island regions that are geographically distant from the European centre of power (Brussels) will adopt more Eurosceptic positions. This article aims to test these competing hypotheses about the positioning of SNRPs on Europe. It does so by examining the attitudes of SNRPs in two island regions in the Mediterranean: Corsica and Sardinia. The findings suggest that SNRPs in both places cannot be adequately categorised as either Europhile or Eurosceptic. The article examines the role of several context- and actor-specific factors in shaping the complex positioning of island nationalists in Corsica and Sardinia on the issue of Europe.

The 2007 Scottish Elections: a Dark Day for Participatory Democracy

The Scottish Parliament election of May 2007, held during the anniversary of the 1707 Treaty of Union, produced the first Scottish government whose explicit mandate was to break up the United Kingdom. The Scottish National Party (SNP) succeeded in doing what no other party in Scotland has achieved for over fifty years: stealing the Labour Party’s crown as the largest party north of the border. The SNP replaced Labour (and their LibDem coalition partners) not only in the devolved parliament, but also in dozens of local councils across the country. This historical result was, however, overshadowed by problems surrounding the voting procedures. Almost 150 000 votes were rendered invalid, constituting the largest disenfranchisement of Scottish citizens since universal suffrage. This report sets out the main themes, events and results of the elections, paying particular attention to the challenges of widening participation in the electoral process.

Introduction: Immigration Policies in Multilevel States

Immigration has become one of the most contested issues in advanced democracies. Blamed for threatening national cultures and disrupting social cohesion, immigration has also been identified as the only way to mitigate the pending demographic crises of Western states. Yet despite these demographic arguments, there are few issues that have aroused the concern of electorates more than the prospect of rapid social change resulting from migration. This issue has become increasingly apparent in light of the Arab Spring, which has prompted new population movements. A survey on public attitudes towards migration in six European states revealed that a significant share of citizens is apprehensive about immigration, often perceiving it as a threat to employment, public order, and safety (Diamanti and Bordignon, 2005). We also believe that there are difficulties in tracing a clear dividing line between the social and political rhetoric of these perceptions (Zapata-Barrero and Diez-Nicolas, 2012). This edited book corroborates a number of studies highlighting the potentially destabilizing effects of immigration on the politics and societies of host states (Messina, 2002).