What Drives Citizen Support for Decentralisation and Interregional Fiscal Solidarity?

A significant decentralization trend starting in the 1970 has reallocated authority from national to regional government. Many regions can tax corporate and personal income, can borrow freely on the financial market, and have competencies in key policies such as immigration, education, culture, and welfare. Surprisingly little research has been conducted into citizen’s preferences regarding to the way power is distributed across national and regional government. Daniel Elazar (1987) argued that ‘thinking federal’ by citizens is crucial for sustaining federalism, which includes a positive orientation towards power sharing. However, the causal drivers for citizen support for strong regional government are largely unknown. This paper draws upon a novel and unique International Constitutional Values Survey which asked around 7,000 citizens in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the US about their preferences regarding the structure of government and regional reform. These citizen preferences are linked to regional party systems, regional party strength, and regional institutions (self-rule, shared rule, and electoral system) to explain cross-country and cross-regional variation in federal political culture.