Regionalist Challenges to European States: A Quantitative Assessment

Regional autonomy demands are widespread in Western Europe and are often seen as a significant challenge to the authority of the European ‘nation states’. This article formulates and tests possible explanations for variation in such demands in six Western European countries. As suggested by the existing literature, several cultural and economic characteristics of regions are associated with autonomy demands. To account for further variation and differences in specific demands, however, it is necessary to focus on the nature of party competition in a region. Autonomy demands will be strong if several regionally organized parties compete against each other and more restrained if regional and national parties are in competition. This suggests that regionalism is generally less consequential for existing state structures than often presumed. It seriously challenges state structures only under certain political conditions.