Regionalization in Western Europe

Thomas Christiansen

Chapter 2 in Decentralization and Transition in the Visegrad, 1999, pp 19-33 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Even though regions are now part of the established landscape of West European politics, they are, in many countries, fairly recent creations. The ‘wave’ of regionalization which established regional governments in most of the larger countries of Western Europe occurred only in the 1970s and 1980s. There were of course deviations from what is otherwise seen as a general trend: in Germany federalism had been entrenched since 1949, while in the UK, referendums for devolution failed in 1979. But France, Spain, Italy and Belgium began the creation of intermediate levels of government in the 1970s, and in many ways the characteristics of this development were quite similar: in most cases the creation of regional governments was preceded by a groundswell of popular demand for ‘direct democracy’, for the recognition of cultural specificity or even for an end to ‘internal colonialism’. Practically across the board these high expectations of regionalization were to be disappointed: advocates and critics had to accept that instead of a ‘moment of truth’, regionalization turned out to be a long-winded process of gradual change and adaptation.

Keywords: Regional Government; Monetary Union; Party System; Maastricht Treaty; Regional Politics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:stuchp:978-0-230-37464-5_2

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DOI: 10.1057/9780230374645_2

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