Federalism, Regionalism and Territory

Territoriality has been gaining in importance, in Italy and across European countries, as well as in federal states of Asia and Africa. However, the role of the territory within the theory of federalism has been scarcely addressed, while it presents some interesting peculiarities when compared with the case of unitary states. The territory of a federation is in fact the outcome of an alliance between its components. In addition, in federal states the territory also encourages competition between the different states and allows diversity to exist in different parts of the federation. This book addresses this issue within a comparative perspective, including contributions from European countries, America, Australia, India and Africa. It shows how the territory in federal states is connected to a number of factors, including the economic and political dimension, language, culture and traditions, and historical trends. It also support the importance of understanding territoriality as political territoriality in order to capture the amalgam of socio-economic and cultural elements encapsulated in a spacial organization.