Overview

Tensions in the Territorial Politics of Western Europe (1987) examines the massive postwar increase in European government intervention, a major element being the development of welfare services provided by sub-central units of government. Governments have faced the dilemma of being electorally accountable for services delivered through differentiated, disaggregated policy systems. The territorial distribution of functions has become a major political and policy issue, and government centres have developed strategies for regulating the function-based policy system. The term territorial politics refers to the arena of political activity concerned with the relations between central and sub-central organisations, while recognising the need to return to history. The objectives of this work are to argue for a focus on territorial politics; to demonstrate that the analysis of territorial politics requires an exploration of historical context; and to analyse contemporary problems in territorial politics, focusing on functional allocation, interest articulation, central regulation and the distributional consequence of policy networks.