The New Politics of Autonomy. Territorial Strategies and the uses of European Integration by Political Parties in Scotland, Bavaria and Sardinia 1979-2005

Abstract

European integration has upset many assumptions regarding the distribution of power, functions and authority across and within states. Scholars have bewailed or rejoiced the ‘emptying’ of the state – the erosion of its competences by supranational integration and decentralisation. However, there are few examinations of how substate actors have responded to state and European structural change, and none that have analysed how substate political parties have sought to enhance regional powers and influence during a period in which state boundaries have become permeable. This research fills this lacuna by exploring how substate parties in Scotland, Bavaria and Sardinia have pursued territorial strategies to secure autonomy and capacity in Europe since 1979. The choice of comparing dissimilar regions enables us to explore the uneven effects of European integration in different places, and to examine why some parties have used Europe to advance their territorial projects whilst others have not. Territorial strategies – which include demands for constitutional recognition as well as policy capacity – differ across territories and party systems, owing to a variety of local and statewide factors. They also change over time in response to perceived opportunities for action in Europe. For instance, from 1988-95 the possibilities of a Europe of the Regions led to a convergence of territorial demands, causing nationalist parties to moderate claims to independence and pro-centralist parties to support greater substate autonomy. However, the closing of opportunities for regions from the late 1990s caused some parties to revert back to previous – or more Eurosceptical – positions, or to trade-off autonomy for more access to the state. This indicates that substate party support for European integration is often tactical, whilst pressures for autonomy are motivated by the perception of policy benefits to be obtained, with or without Europe.