The Rise of Regional Authority
A comparative study of 42 democracies
Liesbet Hooghe, Gary Marks and Arjan Schakel 
Most countries around the globe have one or two levels of regional or intermediate government, yet we have little systematic idea of how much authority they wield, or how this has changed over time.
This book measures and explains the formal authority of intermediate or regional government in 42 advanced democracies, including the 27 EU member states. It tracks regional authority on an annual basis from 1950 to 2006. The measure reveals wide variation both cross-sectionally and over time. The authors examine four influences – functional pressures, democratization, European integration, and identity – to explain regionalization over the past half-century.
Liesbet Hooghe, Gary Marks, Arjan H. Schakel (2010), The Rise of Regional Authority: A Comparative Study of 42 Democracies, Routledge.