EPRC Seminar: The Territorialisation of Interest Representation in Europe

On 12 May, EPRC hosted a seminar by Professor Michael Keating from the University of Aberdeen as part of the EPRC European Policy Seminar Series. His presentation on 'The Territorialisation of Interest Representation in Europe' took the 'regional' or 'meso' level of government in European states as its starting point. Relatively little is known about devolved governments as policy-making systems. Michael Keating's presentation introduced an ongoing research project that will look at devolution and interest representation in six states, examining the extent to which interest groups have decentralized. The project will analyse three possible responses to devolution: no change, as interest representation remains at the level of the nation state; an unbundling of policy communities, as different interests migrate to different territorial levels or 'venue-shop'; and the constitution of regional policy communities, as interest representation and social compromises relocate to the regional level, with interest intermediation at this level.