The article centres on the saliency that regional decentralization has had for British, Italian and French political parties in the past 60 years. A longitudinal analysis of the emphasis that parties have assigned to this issue in their manifestos confirms the hypothesis that certain environmental factors influence the changes of attention of parties on regionalization in their electoral discourse. Electoral threats and institutional reforms have a relevant impact and are mediated by the nature of party goals (policy-, vote- or office-seeking).

The history of the Italian Republic's territorial structure has always been intertwined with party competition. Partisan logics have notably played a relevant role in the ways regions have been moulded, set up and run. This article illustrates the discourse of Italy's political parties on the ‘ordinary’ statute regions throughout the successive phases of regionalisation. After the consensus reached in the Constituent Assembly, a paralysis due to party contrasts followed. The Centre-left governments in the 1960s re-started the process, which culminated in the 1970s–also thanks to the Communists’ support–in the establishment of the 15 ordinary-statute regions. The 1990s inaugurated a period of further devolution, which reached constitutional status in the early years of the millennium. Once again, partisan motivations were of primary importance, notably because of the electoral threat posed to mainstream parties by the Northern League. In recent years, party positions have differentiated consistently according to inter-coalition competitive dynamics.

Decentralization has been a matter of partisan divide in most European countries in the past decades, usually supported by parties excluded from power or with a strong territorialized support. On the basis of an analysis of party discourse and legislative behaviour and the concerned literature, this article aims to interpret the changes to regional governance and powers enacted in France in the last 5 years, in the light of decadelong political competition on this dimension. The laws no. 2010-1563 and 2015-29 aimed to rationalize a cumbersome and costly local government system. They confirm the divisive nature of territorial government reform in a majoritarian political system such as France. French Politics (2015) 13, 241-265.

IntroduzioneNegli scorsi decenni sono state proposte nella letteratura politologica diverse descrizioni e classificazioni dei sistemi di partito, sulla base del loro formato e della loro meccanica interna. L'argomento della differenziazione territoriale dei sistemi partitici, però, è stato piuttosto trascurato nello studio di questa materia. E tuttavia «nei grandi stati vi sono in realtà relativamente pochi fenomeni politici che la popolazione sperimenta in maniera omogenea», e i dati nazionali sovente rappresentano solo delle «medie di esperienze soggiacenti abbastanza differenti» (Dunleavy e Margetts 1994). Questo saggio mira a sviluppare tale argomento con riferimento ad un caso specifico, la realtà politica italiana dal 1970 ad oggi. Si evidenzierà come ed in quale misura un sistema partitico nazionale possa comprendere vari sub-sistemi, costituiti dagli stessi soggetti ma al contempo diversificati in più aspetti.