ABSTRACT
This chapter develops specific methodological and analytical instruments for evaluating how democratic regions have developed different institutional structures and how these variations can impact on their public policy capabilities. It applies Arend Lijphart's analytical approach to regional political systems of federal and decentralized countries in Western Europe. The chapter develops research design for assessing to what extent regional institutions and processes vary within countries and across countries and, to what extent regional institutions correspond to the 'majoritarian versus consensus' model elaborated by Lijphart almost two decades ago. It overcomes nation-centric bias in mainstream research on quality of democracy by integrating existing scholarship on democratic governance with tailored research designs aimed at measuring democratic quality in multilevel systems. The chapter discusses the regional dimension of assessment of democratic performance of contemporary political regimes. It elaborates original research design that analyses the cross-time, cross-section interplay between sub-national, national or even supranational systems of governance, to examine causes and effects in interregional variation.
