Tensions in the Territorial Politics of Western Europe

<p><i>Tensions in the Territorial Politics of Western Europe </i>(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.</p>