This book examines the effects of economic and political restructuring on regions in Europe and North America. The main theses are: international economic restructuring and its impact on regions; political realignments at the regional level; questions of territorial identity and their connection with class, gender and neighbourhood identity; policy choices and policy conflicts in regional development.

After three hundred years, the Anglo-Scottish Union is in serious difficulty. This is not because of a profound cultural divide between England and Scotland but because recent decades have seen the rebuilding of Scotland as a political community while the ideology and practices of the old unionism have atrophied. Yet while Britishness is in decline, it has not been replaced by a dominant ideology of Scottish independence. Rather Scots are looking to renegotiate union to find a new place in the Isles, in Europe, and in the world.
There are few legal, constitutional or political obstacles to Scottish independence, but an independent Scotland would need to forge a new social and economic project as a small nation in the global market-place, and there has been little serious thinking about the implications of this. Short of independence, there is a range of constitutional options for renegotiating the Union to allow more Scottish self-government on the lines that public opinion seems to favor. The limits are posed not by constitutional principles but by the unwillingness of English opinion to abandon their unitary conception of the state. The end of the United Kingdom may be provoked, not by Scottish nationalism, but by English unionism.

This book tackles head-on the challenges of digital design in the era of billion-transistor SoCs. It discusses fundamental design concepts in design and coding required to produce robust, functionally correct designs. It also provides specific techniques for measuring and minimizing complexity in RTL code. Finally, it discusses the tradeoff between RTL and high-level (C-based) design and how tools and languages must progress to address the needs of tomorrow 's SoC designs.

Australia faces major challenges to its forms of governance. Changing expectations from its citizens, global pressures on the economy and technological innovation are impacting on government operations. Yet most of its institutions were designed a hundred years ago. Cabinet government was inherited. Parliament was already established in its forms and procedures. The federal structure, the High Court and the federal public service were created as a consequence. The party structure has been effectively frozen since the 1920s and a tradition of handing some responsibilities to arms-length organisations was well established.So how have these institutions changed over the last hundred years and how well will they adapt to the demands of the modern world? Do they have the capacity to adapt appropriately and enable governments to achieve their preferred outcomes? In this book experienced academics and practitioners explore these questions. They examine each of the institutions in terms of their ability to meet new challenges and provide some hope that Australia's institutions, even if at times slow to move and dominated by internal interests, have a capacity to adapt and govern effectively. The book shows our political institutions in a new light, as dynamic, often flexible organisms; it provides important new insights into the way we are governed and how our system of governance might develop in the future.

This unique book presents the first systematic overview of policy analysis activities in Belgium. Contributors from both sides of the Dutch-French language border (from research institutes in Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia) use original empirical data, through surveys and interviews with key players both within and outside government, to provide a comprehensive study of policy analysis in a multi-level polity. By the very nature of the Belgian experience, the volume is comparative, drawing conclusions on divergence and convergence of policy analysis, making it an important resource for both national and international scholars.

Autonomy has been widely advocated as a means of managing national diversity, whilst meeting the demands of justice and stability. It comes in a variety of forms, both territorial and non-territorial and spans the categories of secession, confederation, federalism, devolution, local government and cultural self-management. Using the term in a broad way, this book examines its meanings in political and legal theory and its application in a variety of settings in Europe, North America and Asia. Among the issues discussed are: normative theories of self-determination; the definition and boundaries of autonomous communities; secession and its alternatives; the political economy of autonomy; the policy capacity of autonomous governments; legal conceptions of autonomy and the international context.

Social scientists have regularly proclaimed the end of territory under successive waves of modernization, yet it continually re-emerges as a key principle of social, economic, and political organization. Rather than a de-territorialization we are witnessing a rescaling of social life as functional systems, identities, and political expression migrate to new levels. This is not new, but is a recurrent feature of the European state. States have sought to reassert control over these new spaces, while political and social movements have sought to politicize them and open them up to popular influence. The result has been the emergence of the meso-level or region as set of contested spaces, and increasingly as a level of government. Social and economic interests are refracted at these new territorial levels to reshape the policy agenda and create new social alliances and conflicts. Regions have emerged as spaces for public policy, with significant divergences over economic development, welfare policies, public services and environmental issues. Rescaling poses important normative questions about self-determination and social solidarity. These cannot definitively be resolved but are reframed, with new forms of self-government being possible and social solidarity emerging at new levels. Competitive regionalism has become a dominant theme but there is no generalized race to bottom as regions respond to the challenge in multiple ways. Regions are not going to replace the nation-state as they remain loosely-bounded and contested spaces but territory continues to reshape European polities. Drawing on a rich interdisciplinary literature and on original research, the volume provides a fresh and engaging analytical approach to the understanding of territory and power in contemporary Europe.

This book explores how political, economic and social crises in Europe have led to electoral realignments, territorial forms of politics and new nationalisms. Since the 2008 financial crisis, European countries have faced economic stagnation, rising inequalities, worsening social conditions and strains on public services. These developments had major consequences on the political landscape, challenging the ability of political institutions to ensure integration and cohesion. Changes in the scale of politics have emerged; local and regional governments have engaged in redistributive politics in opposition to ‘austerity’ at state and European levels. The chapters in this book investigate these interactions with an interdisciplinary perspective. This edited volume explores the political framing, economic drivers and social dynamics of recent transformations in the territorial bases of politics. Inequalities, Territorial Politics, Nationalism will be of great relevance to advanced students and researchers in the fields of comparative politics, international relations, comparative federalism, and public policy. This book was originally published as a special issue of Territory, Politics, Governance.

This timely book will explain, via a number of thematic and case studies, that international economics is not an independent terrain of economic activity reproducing itself throughout history, but a complex articulation of social, political and culturally determined actions that are inextricably linked. Chapters will address the role of dominant global powers in the making of global industrial and monetary relations, and, in particular, ways in which, and the degrees to which dominant economic and military powers, such as the USA, tend to shape the domestic economic environments of lesser powers after their own image. Supplementing the chapters will be a comprehensive A - Z glossary section, which will include key International Political Economy terms, e.g. international debt, European free trade area, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, IMF, GATT-WTO, Foreign exchange, fixed exchange rates, floating exchange rates, reserve currency, gold-dollar parity, multinational corporation, preferential trade agreement, hedge funds, etc. Entries will be cross-referenced for ease of use. This book will be ideal for researchers and students in the areas of politics, international relations and international economics, as well as for academics, economists, business people, and those with an interest in the workings of international political economy.

This book is the second of two studies which systematically explore territoriality of the vote in Europe. They investigate when and where voters treat regional elections differently from national contests and aim to increase our understanding of the dynamics of electoral competition, which have become increasingly multifarious and complex in many countries due to the establishment and strengthening of regional government. This volume brings together leading experts on elections who analyze differences between regional and national electoral outcomes in ten East European countries since 1990. Based on a common analytical framework, each chapter investigates congruence between regional and national elections and traces and explains second-order and regional election effects. The editors applied a similar analytical framework in Regional and National Elections in Western Europe (Palgrave, 2013) which focused on 13 West European countries, enabling the authors to compare regional electoral dynamics between Eastern and Western Europe and observe to what extent explanations for territorial heterogeneity in the vote in the West also apply to the East. This book will be of particular interest to advanced students and scholars in the fields of comparative politics, regional studies, Eastern-European politics, and democratization.

This book compares the constitutional politics in Canada and the United Kingdom - two complex, multilevel, plurinational states. While the former is federal and the latter a devolved state, the logic of both systems is similar: to combine unity with diversity. Both are facing similar challenges in a world marked by spatial rescaling, international interdependence and economic and social change. The contributors chart these challenges and the responses of the two countries, covering the meanings of federalism and devolution; the role of the courts; fiscal equalization; welfare; party politics; reform by popular referendum and citizen assemblies; and intergovernmental relations. The book will be of interest to students of federalism and multilevel government, state transformation territorial politics on both sides of the Atlantic.

This book provides an appreciation of the work of renowned scholar Richard Rose. Over a career spanning more than six decades, Rose has explored a vast range of subjects related to British, American and comparative politics. His work, however, has always been concerned with an underlying theme: governing modern societies in changing times. Celebrating Rose's career which has shaped postwar political science in decisive ways, this volume examines issues, debates and lines of research stimulated by his work. Chapters are organized thematically under five headings central to his research: parties and elections, political institutions, public policy, governing at multiple levels, and trust and legitimacy. The book demonstrates that politics cannot be reduced to economics, the actions of individuals, predictive science or functional determinism, but has its own logic and modes of justification. It will appeal to scholars and students of politics, public policy and governance.

Changing Borders in Europe focuses on the territorial dimension of the European Union. It examines the transformation of state sovereignty within the EU, the emergence of varied self-determination claims, and the existence of a tailor-made architecture of functional borders, established by multiple agreements. This book helps to understand how self-determination pressures within the EU are creating growing concerns about member states' identity, redefining multi-level government in the European space. It addresses several questions regarding two transformative processes - blurring of EU borders and state sovereignty shifts - and their interrelations from different disciplinary perspectives such as political science, law, political economy and sociology. In addition, it explores how the variable geographies of European borders may affect the issue of national self-determination in Europe, opening spaces for potential accommodations that could be compatible with existing states and legal frameworks. This book will be of key interest for scholars, students and practitioners of EU politics, public administration, political theory, federalism and more broadly of European studies, international law, ethnic studies, political economy and the wider social sciences.

Transnational integration and other challenges to the nation-state have deprived it of its mystique and broken the automatic link between state and nation. This has encouraged the revival of

stateless nationalisms, but also provided new means for their accommodation. The author argues that these changes call for a radical rethinking of the nature of sovereignty and of the state itself to

meet the twin challenges of recognition of nationality and of democracy. Drawing on the experience of four plurinational state - United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium, and Canada - and of the European Union,

he analyses the challenges of plurinationalism and its recognition.

The United Kingdom, Spain and Belgium have all undergone political devolution in recent years, with powers transferred from central government to regions and nations within these states. There is a rich literature on devolution, but surprisingly little on its consequences for public policy. This book explores the effects of devolution on the policy process, policy substance and policy outcomes in the UK, Spain and Belgium. The chapters study a range of policy spheres, including education, health care and general social policy, examining the scope for policy innovation and policy divergence between different levels of government. The analyses highlight the scope for comparison across devolved governments, which often face similar policy challenges and seek to exercise their autonomy within similar constraints. Each study underlines the importance of pre-existing policy communities, political cultures and institutions in shaping the scope for policy innovation within devolved governments. Each study also reinforces the need to consider devolved policy-making within the context of the nation-state. Devolution altered the relationship between the state and meso communities, but there remains a considerable degree of political and policy interdependence between governments at each level of the state. This book was previously published as a special issue of Regional and Federal Studies.

Silicon technology now allows us to build chips consisting of tens of millions of transistors. This technology not only promises new levels of system integration onto a single chip, but also presents significant challenges to the chip designer. As a result, many ASIC developers and silicon vendors are re-examining their design methodologies, searching for ways to make effective use of the huge numbers of gates now available. These designers see current design tools and methodologies as inadequate for developing million-gate ASICs from scratch. There is considerable pressure to keep design team size and design schedules constant even as design complexities grow. Tools are not providing the productivity gains required to keep pace with the increasing gate counts available from deep submicron technology. Design reuse - the use of pre-designed and pre-verified cores - is the most promising opportunity to bridge the gap between available gate-count and designer productivity. Reuse Methodology Manual for System-On-A-Chip Designs, Second Edition outlines an effective methodology for creating reusable designs for use in a System-on-a-Chip (Soe design methodology. Silicon and tool technologies move so quickly that no single methodology can provide a permanent solution to this highly dynamic problem. Instead, this manual is an attempt to capture and incrementally improve on current best practices in the industry, and to give a coherent, integrated view of the design process. Reuse Methodology Manual for System-On-A-Chip Designs, Second Edition will be updated on a regular basis as a result of changing technology and improved insight into the problems of design reuse and its role in producinghigh-quality SoC designs.

A highly topical examination of the effect of European integration on relations between states and minority nations.

This new collection brings together the leading specialists in the field, and covers a wide range of cases, from Northern Ireland in the West, to Estonia and Latvia in the East, and Cyprus in the South-East.

The contributors assess how European integration has affected the preparedness of states to accommodate minorities across a range of fundamental criteria, including: enhanced rights protection; autonomy; the provision of a voice for minorities in the European and international arena; and the promotion of cross-border cooperation among communities dissected by state frontiers. The comprehensive chapters stress the importance of the nationality question, and the fact that, contrary to the hopes and beliefs of many on the left and right, it is not going to go away.

Beginning with an introductory essay that summarizes the impact of European integration on the nationalities question, this accessible book will be of strong interest to scholars and researchers of politics, nationalism, ethnic conflict and European studies.

Australia faces major challenges to its forms of governance. Changing expectations from its citizens, global pressures on the economy and technological innovation are impacting on government operations. Yet most of its institutions were designed a hundred years ago. Cabinet government was inherited. Parliament was already established in its forms and procedures. The federal structure, the High Court and the federal public service were created as a consequence. The party structure has been effectively frozen since the 1920s and a tradition of handing some responsibilities to arms-length organisations was well established. So how have these institutions changed over the last hundred years and how well will they adapt to the demands of the modern world? Do they have the capacity to adapt appropriately and enable governments to achieve their preferred outcomes? In this book experienced academics and practitioners explore these questions. They examine each of the institutions in terms of their ability to meet new challenges and provide some hope that Australia's institutions, even if at times slow to move and dominated by internal interests, have a capacity to adapt and govern effectively. The book shows our political institutions in a new light, as dynamic, often flexible organisms; it provides important new insights into the way we are governed and how our system of governance might develop in the future.

This topical book examines the effect of European integration on relations between states and minority nations. The editors, picking up an older vocabulary, call this the "nationalities question."
This new collection brings together the leading specialists in the field, and covers a wide range of cases, from Northern Ireland in the West, to Estonia and Latvia in the East, and Cyprus in the South-East. The contributors assess how European integration has affected the preparedness of states to accommodate minorities across a range of fundamental criteria, including: enhanced rights protection; autonomy; the provision of a voice for minorities in the European and international arena; and the promotion of cross-border cooperation among communities dissected by state frontiers. The comprehensive chapters stress the importance of the nationality question, and the fact that, contrary to the hopes and beliefs of many on the left and right, it is not going to go away.
Beginning with an introductory essay that summarizes the impact of "European Integration on the Nationalities Question," this accessible book will be of strong interest to scholars and researchers of Politics, Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict and European Studies.

This work contributes to a better understanding of the growing subnational involvement in foreign affairs. It offers a general view of the most prominent aspects in the development of subnational foreign action around the world, dealing with topics such as the repercussions upon subnational autonomy of the progressive constitution of diverse international regimes like the European Union, NAFTA, and APEC, or the complex relation between the growing subnational foreign action and the contemporary conditions for the formulation and implementation of foreign policy in federal and quasifederal states.

This work contributes to a better understanding of the growing subnational involvement in foreign affairs. It offers a general view of the most prominent aspects in the development of subnational foreign action around the world, dealing with topics such as the repercussions upon subnational autonomy of the progressive constitution of diverse international regimes like the European Union, NAFTA, and APEC, or the complex relation between the growing subnational foreign action and the contemporary conditions for the formulation and implementation of foreign policy in federal and quasifederal states.

This volume addresses the issues arising from the recent devolution referenda by exploring the historical development of the proposals, the importance of national and regional identities, the changing policies of the political parties and the approaches of business and other major groups towards devolution. It also looks at the impact on electoral reform coming from the proposal that proportional representation be used to elect the regional assemblies and how the new assemblies are to be financed. Finally the book discusses the implications of a devolved British state where different countries and regions achieve different levels of autonomy at different paces.

This volume addresses the issues arising from the recent devolution referenda by exploring the historical development of the proposals, the importance of national and regional identities, the changing policies of the political parties and the approaches of business and other major groups towards devolution. It also looks at the impact on electoral reform coming from the proposal that proportional representation be used to elect the regional assemblies and how the new assemblies are to be financed. Finally the book discusses the implications of a devolved British state where different countries and regions achieve different levels of autonomy at different paces.

This book combines theoretical essays with probing case studies to examine the effects of economic and political restructuring in Europe and North America on regions on these two continents. The main theses are: international economic restructuring and its impact on regions; political realignments at the regional level; questions of territorial identity and their connection with class, gender and neighbourhood identity; policy choices and policy conflicts in regional development.

The United Kingdom, Spain and Belgium have all undergone political devolution in recent years, with powers transferred from central government to regions and nations within these states. There is a rich literature on devolution, but surprisingly little on its consequences for public policy. This book explores the effects of devolution on the policy process, policy substance and policy outcomes in the UK, Spain and Belgium. The chapters study a range of policy spheres, including education, health care and general social policy, examining the scope for policy innovation and policy divergence between different levels of government. The analyses highlight the scope for comparison across devolved governments, which often face similar policy challenges and seek to exercise their autonomy within similar constraints. Each study underlines the importance of pre-existing policy communities, political cultures and institutions in shaping the scope for policy innovation within devolved governments. Each study also reinforces the need to consider devolved policy-making within the context of the nation-state. Devolution altered the relationship between the state and meso communities, but there remains a considerable degree of political and policy interdependence between governments at each level of the state. This book was previously published as a special issue of Regional and Federal Studies.