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The balance between local autonomy and central control is a perennial issue in the territorial organisation of states. Central domination and local submission have been defining features of some states while in others cities and provinces enjoyed extensive freedom from central interference. The history of nation-building in Europe since the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) is largely a story of gradual integration of diverse cities and provinces into larger territorial units (Rokkan and Urwin 1978). The process varied from country to country with markedly different outcomes in terms of the degree and characteristic patterns of local autonomy. The purpose of this book is to chart this variation as it exists today and to assess its drivers and consequences.

With the emergence of the modern nation state, the virtues and shortcomings of the competing ideals about how to organise the relations between central power and territorial …