Recent research suggests that parties' positions on the territorial dimension may shape their environmental agendas, yet empirical evidence remains limited to a small number of cases. In this article we examine whether pro-periphery parties assign greater salience to environmental issues compared to centralist parties, drawing on a large dataset of electoral manifestos from Spain. The Spanish case, with its wide range of nationalist and regionalist parties across the ideological spectrum, offers an ideal setting for testing this hypothesis. Our findings show that left-wing parties consistently prioritize environmental issues regardless of their territorial stance. By contrast, among conservative parties, adopting a pro-periphery position strongly increases environmental salience. These results challenge the common view that 'green nationalism' - the association of environmentalism with territorial demands - is confined to left-wing regionalist parties, and instead highlight a broader, ideology-dependent link between territorial politics and environmentalism.
With a pseudo-panel constructed using the two most recent representative Cameroonian household consumption surveys, we investigate the influence of exposure to decentralization on household income inequality. Previous literature on this topic focuses on linking specific forms of decentralization and income inequality, mainly among regions, but we examine the influence of exposure to the 2010 decentralization on inter-household income inequality in Cameroon. We also use a relative deprivation index instead of the standard Gini coefficient to capture income inequality. We do regressions at the mean overall and across several subsamples. Results show that in the full, labor market and by regional subsamples, exposure to decentralization is associated with a reduction in income inequality among households with heterogeneous disparities observed. These findings suggest that effective decentralization would reduce household income inequality in developing country settings.
This article investigates the politics of vertical power transfers in Spain's decentralized territorial system using a dataset of transfers of powers granted between 1978 and 2022. The analysis challenges the centrality and understanding of the 'credible exit threat' as suggested by the Siroky et al. (2016. "Center-Periphery Bargaining in the Age of Democracy." Swiss Political Science Review 22 (4): 439-453) model, in bargaining, showing that the Spanish government sometimes penalizes regions with high non-state-wide parties' electoral support instead. On the contrary, our analysis highlights economic dependence as a critical determinant, moderating the effect of political distinctiveness. This work offers a contribution to federalism research by identifying unique Spanish decentralization patterns and discussing their implications for other federal or regionalized systems.
This study investigates how fiscal rules differently affects state-level fiscal behaviour and growth across India. Using a balanced panel of 18 states from 2000-2001 to 2021-2022, it explores the asymmetric effects of sub-national fiscal rules on public investment and economic performance. Employing expenditure response models, sub-national growth frameworks, and Non-linear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) estimations, the analysis reveals that when the fiscal deficit-GSDP ratio exceeds the 3% limit mandated by state Fiscal Responsibility Legislations (FRLs), capital expenditure rises significantly. This suggests that additional borrowing often supports development and capital projects. The growth model confirms that fiscal flexibility enhances public investment and growth. While aggregate patterns broadly align with individual state results, notable heterogeneity exists. The study challenges the idea of a uniform fiscal target for all states, concluding that limited relaxation beyond the fiscal threshold for capital spending can stimulate public investment and economic expansion at the subnational level.
The question of statehood has persistently shaped the discourse on political evolution in post-independence India. Since the turn of the millennium, the formation of new states such as Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana has demonstrated the dynamic processes of territorial restructuring within India's federal framework. Furthermore, the instances of statehood claims in Delhi (2015) and the ongoing Gorkha and Bodoland movements prompted the question of why these regional states opted to assert their statehood claims within the confines of India's centralized federal system. This prompts critical questions: What drives these regional movements to seek statehood? How can the mechanisms of sub-state resistance be effectively analyzed? This paper adopts the Telangana statehood movement as a case study to construct an analytical framework termed 'identity superimposition'. By synthesizing insights from identity politics and internal secession theories, this framework seeks to illuminate the dynamics underpinning statehood demands and resistance.
