Bøker i Regionalisme & Federalisme/Regionalism & Federalism-serien

The book analyses the transnational Alpine region where historical, social, and geo-economic specificities have led to a distinctive type of democracy and identity. Differentialist identities, multi-level consociational accommodation, and corporatist intermediation are typical features of this region¿s «consensual politics», and the process of European integration adds further to this complexity. These forms of consensual politics are challenged today by large and persistent populist parties that express strong anti-elitist sentiments, local identities, and Euro-sceptic attitudes. The book examines the defensive reaction of populist parties to the perceived threats of open borders (multi-culturalism and cheap labour) and elite negotiations (at all levels of governance). Protest attitudes translate into alternative views of European integration favouring proposals for an anti-assimilationist and labour protective «Fortress», as well as a religiously-based «Europe of the People». The book considers the possibility of a potential cleavage in the incipient European party system through alliances of «losers of integration» cutting across the left-right alignment and overlapping with ethno-linguistic, centre-periphery, religious, and rural-urban factors that survived in the Alpine region more than elsewhere. An empirical analysis by a group of international experts focuses on the Alpine areas of Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, and Switzerland in which parties like FPÖ, CSU, Lega Nord, and Schweizerische Volkspartei have recently become crucial actors.

The impact of recent shifts in global geopolitics and economic markets has led to the re-conceptualization of national borders. Scholars have shifted their analysis away from the narrow idea of «borders», and moved their attention towards the wider view of «borderlands», «border regions», and «border zones», thus, leading to the conceptual re-definition of border politics. These recent approaches have identified border areas as socially constructed territories that demonstrate many of the characteristics of independent polities. Border communities seem to have come to life, creating a degree of autonomy and separation from central state actors. While the rich literature in border studies identifies important changes in local political and economic systems, it does not necessarily identify the mechanisms that create these changes: Why has integration occurred in some border regions while others are being reinforced? Why has integration failed in some cases where opportunity structures are positive, while it has succeeded in others saddled with more limited constraints? The essays in this volume address such fundamental questions.

The process of devolution in the United Kingdom (UK) established new institutions at the sub-state level with a range of legislative and executive competencies. Yet many of these devolved powers also have a European Union (EU) dimension, whilst EU policy remains a formally reserved power of the UK central government. This book explores how this multi-level relationship has been managed in practice, examining the participation of the devolved Scottish and Welsh institutions in the domestic process of formulating the UK¿s EU policy positions during their first four-year term. It also places their experiences in a broader comparative framework by drawing upon the experiences of multi-level governance in practice in other Member States of the EU.

Plus dynamique que jamais, le régionalisme en Bretagne invite à interroger les analyses actuelles sur la recomposition ascendante des territoires en Europe. Les mobilisations régionales contribuent en effet à institutionnaliser un ordre territorial propre face au retrait de l¿État et à l¿internationalisation des marchés. Pourtant, leurs formes spécifiques sont mal expliquées par les modèles d¿interprétation du néo-régionalisme ou du néo-localisme. Pour évaluer en rigueur cette recomposition, cet ouvrage privilégie une analyse longitudinale des mécanismes d¿institutionnalisation dans trois secteurs du territoire régional : la culture, la politique et l¿économie. Il s¿attache à nuancer l¿homogénéité apparente du « régionalisme » au profit de la diversité des trajectoires de chaque type de mobilisation régionaliste. Parallèlement, cet ouvrage solide envisage leur combinaison synchronique selon un cadre d¿analyse propre, qui fonde la construction d¿un ordre territorial sur une forte capacité de mobilisation en présence d¿un État englobant puissant.