The Challenges of Multi-Level Party Politics

Abstract

The rediscovery of territorial politics is both a political and a scientific phenomenon. Since around the 1970s, political developments in Western democracies have triggered renewed academic interest in the territorial structuring of politics. One strand in the literature has claimed that economic and social interchanges are no longer structured by territorial boundaries in an era of globalization. Globalization refers to a significant increase in international trade and capital mobility, the rise of multinational corporations, the development of new communication technologies, the growth in international political cooperation and law-making as well as processes of cultural standardization and confrontation.