Decentralisation reforms strengthen regionalist parties at the regional level and create an incentive for radicalisation at the national level

The effect of decentralisation reforms on the electoral performance of regionalist parties remains unclear. Using data from eleven Western democracies, Emanuele Massetti and Arjan Schakel show that decentralisation reforms influence regionalist parties in different ways across regional and national elections.

They write that such reforms undermine regionalist parties in national elections, while strengthening them in regional ones, but also claim that the effects depend upon the level of party radicalisation.

The countries covered in the study were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.

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