The Territorial Imperative
Pluralism, Corporatism and Economic Crisis

The Territorial Imperative explores the interaction of politics and economics at the mesolevel of the polity.

Jeffrey J. Anderson (Author)

9780521413787, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 February 1992

270 pages
23.6 x 15.9 x 2.2 cm, 0.48 kg

'This is a very good research report on a relatively neglected aspect of political organisation and action. Its focus is on the regional politics of England and Germany, with case studies of the north-east and West Midlands in England, complemented by analysis of Saarland and North Rhine-Westphalia … At the risk of repeating a line that will be used by other reviewers, Anderson's book should be an imperative library purchase.' International Journal of Urban and Regional Research

The Territorial Imperative explores an area of interest in comparative political economy - the interaction of politics and economics at the mesolevel of the polity. Noting the ubiquity of regional economic disparities within advanced industrial democracies, Jeffrey Anderson undertakes a sophisticated analysis of the complex political conflicts such disparities generate. In this study of political responses to regional crisis, the principal theoretical focus centres on the impact of constitutional orders as bona fide political institutions. On the basis of a carefully constructed comparison of four declining industrial regions within a broader cross-national comparison of unitary Britain and federal Germany, Anderson concludes that constitutional orders as institutions do in fact matter. The territorial distribution of power, encapsulated in the federal-unitary distinction of interests and resources among sub-national and national actors and on the strategies of cooperation and conflict available to them.

List of figures
List of tables
Preface
1. Introduction
2. Power-dependence and regional economic crisis
3. Central governments and regional policy
4. The British regions
5. The German Länder
6. The territorial imperative: political logic interprets problem logic
List of abbreviations
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP]