The regional level in many democracies has been strengthened over the last decades. Accordingly, the federalism reform of 2006 in Germany provided the Länder with 16 additional legislative competences and thereby created space to conduct different public policies. While the Federal Republic of Germany has followed the path of homogenous policy outcomes for decades, with the reunification of 1990, socioeconomic, cultural and political differences grew substantially. This paper examines how this intensified territorial diversity affects the policymaking of the Länder. Based on a comprehensive database covering all new fields of competence, we examine the legislative activities of all Länder. We develop indexes and demonstrate how the Länder laws deviate both from former federal laws and each other. With a time series analysis we explain these differences based on each Land’s resources, socioeconomic conditions, party composition of government and regional press coverage (salience).
