Agenda-Setting in National and Sub-National Parliaments

To which extent do regional parliaments have agenda-power like national parliaments? In this paper, we extend the research on regional agenda power in Unitary states to the sub-national level and test if regional parliaments have a distinct agenda-setting powers from the national parliaments. We expect that both types of assemblies function identically on that matters, nevertheless, we argue that regional parliaments may act as an additional level with veto-powers in issue specific situations. That is, an extra layer of the decision-making process is within their domain. To test our theoretical approach, we selected the sub-national Parliaments in Europe that have legislative power in Unitary states (Åland Islands, 2011-2015, in Finland, and Azores, 2012-2016, and Madeira, 2011-2015, in Portugal and Scotland, 2011-2016, Wales, 2011-2016, and Northern Ireland, 2007-2011, in the United Kingdom) as this is a particularly relevant pre-condition to have leverage. We use novel legislative data from the distinct periods between 2007 and 2016.