Regionalist Parties in Western Europe: Dimensions of SuccessOscarMazzoleni and SeanMueller (eds.)London and New York, Routledge (2017), 196 pp., ISBN 978 1 4724 7754 5

Abstract

This work edited by Mazzoleni and Mueller delves into the regionalist parties’ literature and brings new theoretical approaches that offer a well fitted and innovative conceptual frame focused on policy success. Regionalist parties are defined as those organised at and for the regional level and that mainly represent regional interests, departing from Keating's (2009) consideration of regions as ontologically different from other territories. This conceptualization sets the basis for a comparative study consisting of in-depth studies of regionalist parties that all share a common characteristic: success related to participation in regional executives. These in-depth studies concern the following regionalist parties: Scottish National Party, SNP (written by Bennie); Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern e.V., CSU (Wagemann); Convergència i Unió, CiU and Eusko Alderdi Jeltzalea/Partido Nacionalista Vasco, EAJ/PNV (Barberá and Barrio); Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie, N-VA and Fédéralistes Démocrates Francophones, FDF (Van Haute); Südtiroler Volkspartei, SVP (Pallaver); Lega Nord, LN (Biorcio) and Lega dei Ticinesi, LdT (Mazzoleni). The idea of success is central to the volume and constitutes one of its main contributions. Beyond the traditional interpretation of electoral success alone, the authors consider three different and well complementary dimensions: electoral success, office success and policy success, focusing on this latter area as the final proof of parties’ achievements. The common structure that underlines every chapter looks to clarify the different aspects involved in regionalist parties’ success and the logical paths leading to it. Besides, each chapter contains detailed information on the regionalist parties and their context, which combines the demanding conceptual and analytical task with valuable descriptive information. Mazzoleni and Mueller's edited work opens with a theoretical chapter devoted to explaining the book's structure and presenting the core concepts that will be applied in each individual analysis. Regionalist parties’ conceptualisation, notions of success and relations among different kinds of success are therefore the most important elements in this introduction, with policy success being highlighted as the core dimension to be considered. The in-depth case chapters deal with regionalist parties’ evolution and current situation in six different countries (Scotland, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland). Sometimes more than one party is considered in the analysis (Spain, Belgium and Italy), which enables a rich understanding of how party decisions might affect different areas of success in a “common” institutional context. Overall, the strategy of studying most-different-systems provides the reader with relevant conclusions on regionalist parties’ success, and the explicitly mentioned risk of over-determination is well managed thanks to the accurate conceptual design and the authors’ discussion effort in the final chapter. Different success patterns are outlined, since not every regionalist party has followed the same path or faced the same challenges. The chosen selection strategy makes that all the parties studied show, at least to some extent, what is defined as electoral success, although parties that usually dominate the regional arena (e.g. CiU, CSU, PNV, LdT) coexist with other parties more affected by electoral changes and voter displacement (e.g. SNP, N-VA or FDF). The work done by the authors in the specific-case chapters allows mapping the reasons behind individual trajectories, sometimes even describing the profile of their voters and programmatic changes in relation to electoral success. In addition, interesting differences can be observed when it comes to understanding office and policy success. Office success shows a high degree of variability, and also relates to a rich body of literature in relation to multilevel-systems and its implications for regionalist parties. CiU and PNV are very good examples in this regard, since their involvement (always outside formal coalition governments) with national level executives has influenced coalitions at the regional level and also policy success. Each chapter describes the evolution and strategies of these regionalist parties to gain and keep office power, considering how different political levels follow different logics and how parties are affected by size and discourse in this regard. Belgium's regionalist parties are a good example in this vein, with the N-VA being a less appealing partner at the federal level until 2014, due to its conflictual opposition style (p. 94). A singular position here is represented by CSU and FDF, which have frequently taken part in coalition governments at the national level. The definition of policy success might be preliminary too broad, due to the amount of aspects potentially considered under this label and also due to the need for idiosyncratic features in the individual chapters. Sometimes it even looks like policy success is an elastic concept that authors always found in different degrees. The conclusion (by Mazzoleni, Mueller and Van Haute), clarifies this aspect and incorporates a classification of policy success at the regional and national level in relation to different policy-areas (state structure, social welfare, education, and natural resources, among many others). This allows the reader to get a general feel for the question and to systematically compare policy success. This central dimension is the most benefited from the in-depth qualitative analysis selected, since very rich information is offered and put in relation with the causal logic that leads the volume: electoral success, office success and policy success as the final representation of one regionalist party's impact. This book faces a conceptual challenge derived from the very different nature of the units observed. Most of these regionalist parties possess different features related to history, resources or relevance, and so do the regions (wealth, size, cultural aspects, etc.) and countries they operate in. Its theoretical construction and the ability of the authors to work within a common frame lessen the mentioned difficulties. Differences are therefore considered in the analysis (and enrich it), but they do not constitute an obstacle for a common understanding of regionalist parties’ dynamics with regard to success, although the strategy to select cases may influence conclusions mainly in explaining electoral success. All in all, Mazzoleni and Mueller's edited volume is a valuable and innovative contribution to the literature on regionalist parties. It considers in clear terms the different nature of policy success (highlighting devolution) and the multilevel-nature of political systems in which these parties compete and interact, and the authors can test their hypotheses in different contexts thanks to a significant theoretical effort that is supported by rigorous individual analyses. The normal sequence that leads from electoral success to office and policy success cannot explain the evolution of every regionalist party, and the existence of multilevel structures is a relevant aspect in this point. A national reverse pattern is identified here, in which office and policy success affect the electoral one. Regionalists Parties in Western Europe, Dimension of Success is thus an original and well-structured work, and its core concern on the real impact of regionalist parties in everyday politics is a valuable incentive for further research beyond the classical understanding of success.