Multi-Level Party Politics in Western Europe

KLAUS DETTERBECK Senior Lecturer at the University of Magdeburg, Germany. He works primarily on political parties, territorial politics and European integration. Among his current activities is the coordination of a Global Dialogue project for the Forum of Federations on parties and civil society in federations.

• Introduction Federalism, Democracy and Political Parties The Challenges of Multi-Level Party Politics Methodological Issues A Framework for Analysis Multi-Level Party Competition Multi-Level Party Organizations Toward an Explanation Conclusions: Major Findings and Outlook Bibliography Endnotes Index

'Detterbeck's book is a very impressive contribution to knowledge in a field of growing importance in political science: territorial (or regional) politics within the state. Detterbeck directly challenges the 'nationalisation bias' in conventional scholarship, which is especially strong in the study of political parties. He shows across an impressive range of European cases that party competition is 'multi-levelled', with distinctive, 'asymmetric' logics at statewide and sub-state scales; and that parties need to organise themselves in new, territorially differentiated ways to grapple effectively with those distinctive logics. The book provides a sustained challenge to the 'nationalisation bias' which is outstanding conceptually, methodologically, empirically and analytically.' - Charlie Jeffery, Professor of Politics, University of Edinburgh, UK