Wilfried Swenden

Territorial party politics in Western Europe

During the last decades, several West European states have gone through a process of decentralization, involving the shift of significant legislative powers to sub-national entities or regions. As a result their party systems have become multi-layered, featuring a variety of regional party systems that often differ considerably from the state-wide system. State-wide parties are the key integrative force in such a multi-level party system. Yet, in order to play their integrative role, state-wide parties must perform a difficult balancing act. Securing votes in regional elections requires that they give sufficient autonomy to their regional branches and give them some strategic leeway, without however jeopardizing the cohesion and programmatic coherence of the party as a whole. This book offers a powerful synthesis of research in party politics, federalism and regional politics and extends existing insights by bringing in new empirical evidence on the territorial organization and strategies of state-wide parties in five federal or regionalized states in Western Europe: Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Will it stay or will it go? Federalism and the sustainability of Belgium

This article provides an overview of the federalisation of Belgium. It first discusses why Belgium acquired a federal character when the politics of the centre already recognised the multilingual character of the Belgian state. Subsequently the authors discuss the specificities of the Belgian federal system when it is placed in a comparative perspective. The presence of two different types of regions – Regions and Communities – the steering capacity of a small group of political elites reluctant to give up political control, the presence of institutional asymmetries, the initially dual nature of dividing competencies and the slow development of intergovernmental relations are highlighted as specific features of Belgian federalism. In the final section, the authors assess the assets and liabilities of federalism from the viewpoint of institutional stability. They argue that while Belgian federalism contains significant institutional shock absorbers and issues of common interest, the further unravelling of the centre in a confederal direction is more likely.

The politics of Belgium: Institutions and policy under bipolar and centrifugal federalism

This volume seeks to provide an integrated understanding of the Belgian political system through the prism of comparative politics. The transformation of the political system from a unitary into a federal system is used as a connecting theme linking the contributions. The volume is divided in two parts. The first part touches upon the sociological and institutional determinants of policy-making in Belgium, such as the dynamics of the Belgian federal system, the consociational features of the Belgian polity, the presence of a Belgian political culture (or of two distinct political cultures), the fragmentation of its party system and the role of political parties. The second part addresses policy performance and policy reform within the context of Belgian federalism, with a focus on divergence in policy performance and administrative practices, social security as a contentious federal policy area, policy failure and corruption and the impact of EU policies on the domestic federal order.

Issue salience in regional and national party manifestos in the UK

The study reveals the salience of particular issues in the manifestos of the main British parties for the 1997 and 2003 UK general elections, as well as the 2003 Scottish and Welsh elections, using the method introduced by the Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP) and a modified list of issue categories to reflect the division of government competences between the central and regional governments. Ideological and social base of a party, as well as the delimitation of government competences, are found to be important determinants of issue salience. A more consensual institutional design of the regional government in Scotland and Wales seems to have conditioned larger differences among the issue profiles of parties competing in regional elections, in comparison with general elections. With the institutionalisation of devolution, however, we observe an increase in the similarity of the issue profiles of the same parties in general and in Scottish and Welsh elections, as well as among different parties competing in the same regional elections.

Intergovernmental Relations in the UK: Continuity in a Time of Change?:

Party political incongruence in the UK after 2007 has had a moderate effect on both the machinery of intergovernmental relations and the dominant modes of intergovernmental interaction. In assessing changes in intergovernmental structures, we find more frequent meetings and more formalised interactions. A preference for informal bilateral exchange, however, still prevails. In assessing changes in the nature of intergovernmental relations, we find some intensification of conflict, but amid continued co-operation. While one might find more pronounced changes after longer periods of party political incongruence, we argue that the limited effect observed thus far can be traced back to: (i) formal-legal features of the UK multi-level polity; (ii) the nature of the policy sectors requiring intergovernmental co-ordination (iii); the specific political dynamics within the constituent governments; and (iv) the mitigating role and structure of non-elected institutions such as the civil service and the judiciary.

Introduction: Political Opposition in a Multi-Level Context

This short introduction sets out the rationale for the special issue. It introduces the concepts of intergovernmental relations (IGR) and party political incongruence which are central to the analyses contained in the issue. It considers the nature and form of intergovernmental relations in the early years of devolution, under conditions of predominant party congruence in the composition of the central and sub-state governments. It then develops the hypothesised relationship between party political incongruence and intergovernmental relations, focusing on the nature and structure of IGR. It introduces the key questions to be addressed in the issue and each of the subsequent contributions which explore this relationship in greater depth.

What – if anything – can the European Union learn from Belgian federalism and vice versa?

Abstract This article highlights the similarities and differences between Belgium and the EU as multi-level polities and indicates what they might learn from each other. The comparison focuses on (dis)similarities in the internal structure of the components that form the multi-levelled polity, in the processes of central decision-making and in the institutional framework at large. I argue that plural multi-level polities can be more easily sustained if their centre respects the linguistic and territorial integrity of the constituent entities, central decision-making rules are ‘majority-constraining’ and institutional adaptation takes the character of piecemeal reform. Facing growing electoral discontent, leaders in both polities must confront the challenge of maintaining a sufficiently strong centre, while at the same time fostering inter-segmental cooperation in order to stimulate the gradual creation of a trans-segmental public sphere.

Regional Mobilization in the ‘New Europe’: A Research Agenda

Abstract This Special Issue re-assesses regional mobilization in the ‘New Europe’. We anticipate that enlargement to Central Europe, the entering into force of the Lisbon Treaty and the largest economic and financial crisis since the birth of the European Community have affected how regional governments respond to Europeanization along three different dimensions: (1) the position they take vis-à-vis the process of EU integration more generally, (2) the strategies they adopt in response to Europeanization pressures and (3) their internal structures and dynamics of the EU member states as multi-level states. The article introduces a framework and formulates hypotheses to examine why and how Europeanization pressures in the ‘New Europe’ affect regional mobilization along these three dimensions. In the final section, the article also introduces the various contributions to this Special Issue and relates them to the analytical framework.

Regional Mobilization in the New Europe: Old Wine in a New Bottle?

Abstract This conclusion links the various contributions in light of the introductory framework. In line with our framework, scepticism towards the EU has increased since 2004 across most of the EU regions (old and new) and state-centric approaches (regional influence mediated through the central executives) have become the dominant strategy for regional mobilization. Unmediated access through direct regional representation in Brussels remains an important side-strategy though, especially for sub-state nations and regions with the highest level of regional authority, as theoretically expected. Regional authority—more so than the difference between competitive versus cooperative multi-level designs—is an important predictor against centralization pressures resulting from European integration. Overall, changes in the ‘New Europe’ have intensified but not transformed the dominant patterns of regional mobilization, while system-level and regional variables mediate impacts of Europeanization.

Rethinking central planning: A federal critique of the Planning Commission

ABSTRACT This article critically assesses the impact of the Planning Commission on center-state relations in India. It argues that the Planning Commission had a centralizing effect due to its role in overseeing five year and annual planning, its contribution to designing and overseeing Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS), and its involvement in discretionary grant-making. Central policy priorities and inter-state disagreements prevented the Planning Commission from acquiring the role of a shared rule institution, capable of offsetting the centralizing implications of the aforementioned policies. The article then speculates on what prompted the recent replacement of the Planning Commission with the NITI Aayog and what this may mean for shared rule and the nature of collaborative federalism in India more in general.