The Saliency of Regionalization in Party Systems

Abstract

The article centres on the saliency that regional decentralization has had for British, Italian and French political parties in the past 60 years. A longitudinal analysis of the emphasis that parties have assigned to this issue in their manifestos confirms the hypothesis that certain environmental factors influence the changes of attention of parties on regionalization in their electoral discourse. Electoral threats and institutional reforms have a relevant impact and are mediated by the nature of party goals (policy-, vote- or office-seeking).