English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

This article addresses long-standing challenges in conceptualizing and measuring de/centralization in unitary and federal systems. It first outlines a novel conceptualization of de/centralization and its relation to the unitary/federal distinction and a/symmetry, from which it derives static and dynamic typologies of state structures. Building on a critical review of the Regional Authority Index, the article develops a scheme for measuring de/centralization and applies it to map state structures in Western Europe from 1950 to 2015. This mapping exercise shows that the proposed scheme yields more accurate measures of de/centralization than existing indices and that de/centralization differs in kind, rather than merely in degree, between unitary and federal states. By enabling a more effective classification of cases in comparative analysis, the article offers a tool on which theoretical and empirical advances in understanding the causes and effects of state structures can be built.

Conceptualizing, Measuring, and Mapping State Structures—with an Application to Western Europe, 1950–2015