ABSTRACT
Localities have changed in nature through the fusion of previously separate cities and towns in large connurbations, and the growing interdependence of urban and rural areas. This has made it necessary either to create or expand the powers of regional governments. Varied power-sharing between centre and periphery is surprisingly widespread in both Western and Eastern Europe. Catalonia and Euzkadiare are in a special position owing to the strength of their local nationalism. The term subsidiarity is usually used in the context of the division of powers within the European Union, but it applies to all systems of government. Policy communities are tight vertical networks of interested bodies, organizations, and people who have a common interest in a particular policy area and who share a common set of underlying assumptions about it and each other. Federalism is usually identified with the constitutional relationships which exist in the United States between its fifty component states and the federal institutions.
