The Politics of Regional Reforms

Abstract

Territorial reform is often fraught with conflict, as it changes the balance of power between central government and territorial units. Territorial reforms can happen for a wide range of reasons, recognising territorial differences in terms of culture, language, and economic development. In many cases, decentralisation or further reforms of the structure of the state involve political debates and battles between the central government and regions dominated by autonomist parties. However, regional reforms can also reform to the reforms to the way regions are governed and the way democracy works at the sub-state level. The papers in this panel discuss the implementation of regional government reform in Norway, the political determinants of further decentralisation in Spain, the gender gap support for constitutional change and independence in Scotland, the concept of a regional state as a model between unitary and federal state, and whether regionalisation has led to different forms of democratic engagement with citizens.