The Regional Authority Index measures multilevel governance across the world. The data is collected by Liesbet Hooghe, Gary Marks, Arjan H. Schakel, Sandi Chapman Osterkatz, Sara Niedzwiecki, and Sarah Shair-Rosenfield and extensively described in two books, “Measuring Regional Authority: A Postfunctionalist Theory of Governance: Volume I” and “Community, Scale, and Regional Governance: A Postfunctionalist Theory of Governance: Volume II.”. The dataset can be accessed here. We will present the dataset below. While reading, please keep in mind the questions below and answer them once you reached the end. In the final panel, we will provide a link to a platform with an interactive version of the dataset and additional tasks.

Table 1: General Tasks for the Dataset

Tasks
Within Europe, which countries have particularly high levels of self-rule and which have high levels of shared rule?
What are the reasons why some countries have high shared rule while other have high self-rule?
Why are there differences in regional autonomy between regions within a country?

Dataset Description

Overall Information

The dataset covers 81 countries over the period from 1950 to 2010. Data is collected on the regional level, which are the authority levels between local government and national government. In each country, this means that there might be several distinct levels of authority in the dataset. For example, in Germany, there are data on both the Länder and also on “Kreise” (cities or collections of municipalities). In France, there are data both on the level of Départments and on Régions. In the UK, data exists for counties and regions. The depth of data varies with the degree of delegation of power to the subnational level.

Figure 1: Regional Authority Index 2010

Data for Europe

As outlined in Chapter 3 of the book, the RAI provides extensive coverage of Europe. The RAI is particularly high in Spain and Germany (in fact these two countries have the highest RAI in the dataset in 2010), and considerably lower in Finland and Portugal.

Figure 2: Regional Authority Index in Europe in 2010

The two main components of the RAI are self-rule (n_selfrule in the dataset) and shared rule (n_sharedrule). In fact, the RAI measure is simply a sum of those two components. Figure 3 shows the measure of self-rule across Europe in 2010. The index is made up of the variables n_instdepth (autonomy of the regional government), n_policy (range of policies decided at the regional level), n_fiscauto (regional control over taxation), n_borrowauto (how extensively regional governments can borrow money) and n_rep (whether there are regional assemblies and executives). Countries with high levels of self-rule are Germany, Italy, Belgium and Bosnia-Hercegovina.

Figure 3: Self-Rule in Europe in 2010

The second component of the RAI is called n_sharedrule and refers to the extent to which the regional government can influence policy making at the national level. Its components are n_lawmaking (influence of regional representatives on national legislation), n_execcon (influence of regional governments on national intergovernmental meetings), n_fisccon (influence of regional representations on distribution of national taxes), n_borrowcon (influence of regional representations on borrowing decisions) and n_constit (influence of regional representatives on constitutional changes). This indicator is particularly high in Spain, Germany and Belgium, but very low in most of Europe.

Figure 4: Shared Rule in Europe in 2010

Data for Latin America and Asia

RAI datasets also provide information beyond Europe for Asia and the Americas. Figure 5 shows the RAI for Asia. The dataset provides information on Russia, Turkey and several countries in south-east Asia, such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia. Additionally, Australia and New Zealand are covered in the dataset. Finally, Figure 6 shows the data for Latin America. The authors are working on an update for the dataset at the moment which will extend the time period covered up to 2018 and add more countries, presumably in Africa, which is not covered, and Asia.

Figure 5: Regional Authority Index in Asia, Australia and New Zealand in 2010

Figure 6: Regional Authority Index in Latin America 2010

Regional Data

Besides the country-level data, the RAI provides regional level data. This is interesting for countries in which some regions have more autonomy than others, such as the UK and Spain. Table 2 shows the RAi for the UK and Spain. Besides the name of the country and region, the table shows the following variables form the dataset: “type” describes the type of region, as coded by the researchers (S: standard, Y: asymmetric, distinctive authority on one or several dimensions of the RAI, A: autonomous, exempt from the country-wide constitutional framework, individual jurisdiction, D: dependency, region without or with very little autonomy)

In Spain, Ceuta and Melilla are categorized as autonomous regions, while Araba, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, Galiza, Navarre, Catalunya and Euskadi are classified as asymmetric regions with special statuses. Compared to the provincias in the rest of Spain, these regions have considerably higher levels of authority, both when it comes to self-rule and shared rule.

Meanwhile, in the UK, some power has been transferred to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. However, the RAI shows that this devolution has not been uniform: Scotland enjoys the largest degree of self-rule among these regions, while Wales has considerably less. This speaks to the power of the regional parliaments and is rooted in the history of devolution as outlined in Chapter 3.

Table 2: RAI in the UK and Spain

country_name	region_name	type	tier_selfrule	tier_sharedrule	tier_RAI
Spain	Provincias	S	8	4.0	12.0
Spain	Araba/Álava	Y	11	6.0	17.0
Spain	Bizkaia/Vizcaya	Y	11	6.0	17.0
Spain	Gipuzkoa/Guipúzcoa	Y	11	6.0	17.0
Spain	Galiza/Galicia	Y	14	9.5	23.5
Spain	Navarre/Nafarroa	Y	15	10.5	25.5
Spain	Catalunya/Cataluña	Y	14	9.5	23.5
Spain	Euskadi/País Vasco	Y	11	10.5	21.5
Spain	Ceuta	A	14	10.0	24.0
Spain	Melilla	A	14	10.0	24.0
United Kingdom	Counties	S	10	0.0	10.0
United Kingdom	Regions	S	5	0.0	5.0
United Kingdom	Greater London Authority	A	10	0.5	10.5
United Kingdom	Northern Ireland	A	12	6.5	18.5
United Kingdom	Scotland	A	14	6.5	20.5
United Kingdom	Wales	A	9	6.5	15.5