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How will parliamentarians in Europe and North America respond to the emerging challenges raised by globalization and the manifold changes in multilevel politics? Pablo Oñate looks at the increasing professionalization of politics in Spain and the ensuing movement between political arenas in a multilevel system. Starting in 1977, during the country’s transition to democracy, politics was simultaneously professionalized with the institutionalization of a new political system. Political elites were influenced by the very political system they set about designing, Oñate notes, drawing a close connection between institutionalization, professionalization and democratization. The old model political career ladder does not apply in Spain, as regional jurisdictions now hold greater appeal in some regards, due in part to decentralization and the advent of a broader political spectrum, both statewide and non-statewide. This has led to the creation of a large regional administration with many positions available. The changing structure of the state, as a result, has given rise to new structural opportunities, lending new directional characteristics to political careers: unidirectional, alternative, integrated, or reverse spring-board. Oñate examines how these four factors influence the structure of opportunities available to career politicians in terms of the movement between levels of government. There is no clear ladder model, he argues, but rather an integrated political class, one that remains on the same level or moves from one to the next, depending on the opportunities available, with national identity also playing a role in this movement.

In his chapter “Bringing Politicians Back In: Political Careers and Political Class in Multilevel Systems,” Klaus Stolz maintains that a more complete [27] analysis of MLG systems can be achieved by examining the simultaneous professionalization of politics and territorial reorganization. Pairing data from studies on territorial politics with career studies, Stolz examines how these new career paths shape institutional politics and, conversely, how new institutional arrangements produce differing career paths, with broad-ranging implications for decentralization, regionalization, and supranational integration. Stolz challenges the notion that regional government is a mere stepping stone to national or federal politics, arguing that movements between levels of government do not follow the traditional springboard structure and vary greatly among federalized states. While acknowledging that this structure is present in the United States, Stolz, citing the example of Canada and a number of EU member states, shows that political careers, in these states, follow no clear territorial direction. Instead, a host of factors – the federalization of unitary states, a strong sense of national identity in some regions, a rise in the number of positions to fill at the regional level, and the structure of elections and party systems – ensures that a regional career path remains a goal in its own right and may hold as much or more appeal than national politics. The reciprocal and intimately linked relationship between political professionalization and territorial reorganization, with one shaping the other and vice versa, is thus important to the study and understanding of multilevel systems.

Finally, Peverill Squire analyzes the American federal system from its inception with the Constitution in 1789 to the present day. More specifically, he looks at the combined impact of fiscal federalism and policy devolution on the shift in control of U.S. public policy from the states to Washington. While difficult to predict, there has been a trend towards giving policy control back to the states, he argues, with Republicans tending to favour greater devolution than their Democratic counterparts. The allocation of policy responsibilities is left, increasingly, to state legislatures, which vary from state to state in terms of their size, makeup, and level of professionalization—all of which influence their capacity to deal with policy decisions. The professionalization of state legislatures accounts for the biggest discrepancy in policy decisions, as it impacts behaviour among lawmakers as well as the operation of and policy decisions made by legislatures. This latter aspect is particularly important, as legislatures with higher levels of professionalization are more apt to adopt complex regulatory policies and systems, including environmental programs, strict campaign financing laws, funding increases for education and pension programs, and other innovative policies. The organization and mechanisms of each legislature also vary greatly from state to state, further contributing to discrepancies. Variance in state legislatures accounts for the inconsistency in the quality of policy-making decisions in each U.S. state, Squire argues.

This book addresses the impact new regionalism and MLG on political systems and relations, both in the international sphere as well as within specific political systems. In particular, it examines relations of trust between various [28] political arenas, the configuration of institutions and the role and functions of political actors in compound and concurrent political and social arenas. Since MLG is here to stay, the time has come to identify better ways to organize the relationships between different political and social arenas. The analytical framework outlined in this book is meant to provide a good example for the organization of governance in political life.