Regional Governance Capacity and Political Agency: A Comparative Study of EU Regions

Abstract

The debate on the effects of regionalism and European integration on European nation states has been prominent for more than a decade. Regionalisation of EU states has not brought with it genuine regional autonomy and regionalism has not emerged as a bottom-up public demand in European regions. I contend here that to determine the future of regional devolution, whether as a result of bottom-up or top-down processes we have to be able to identify the role of regional political agents (acting often as political entrepreneurs). I examine whether that role is determined by regional governance capacity, regional institutional competence and the degree of emancipation of regional political actors from their respective nation states. The existence of a regional economic milieu and the acquiescence of regional economic elites are also assumed to be relevant. This paper examines some determinants of regional political capacity as identified by a survey of experts (institutional thickness, autonomy in policy making, decisional autonomy, financial autonomy, EU governance role etc) in tandem with regional political actor parameters in a comparative context across 12 regions of the EU, four each from Spain, Poland and the UK. I also employ measures constructed from institutional assessments of regional competence and economic measures of regional weight. I conclude with a look at specific dimensions of regional political capacity and an examination of the role of political agency. In an appendix I present panel data comparisons (1995-2002) to determine economic convergence for regions which would provide the background for testing a number of hypotheses on whether regional autonomy can have an effects on economic growth. Research from this working paper has generated one publication: D. Christopoulos (2006) 'Governance Capacity and Regionalist Dynamics' Regional and Federal Studies, December 2006, 16/4: 363-83. One more manuscript is currently under review: 'Elite Social Capital and Regional Growth in European Regions'