Federalism and the Concept of Political Territoriality: Towards an Analytical Framework for Comparative Territorial Politics

The core issues comparative territorial politics addresses are how and why territory is used to delimit, maintain, or create political power; and with what kind of consequences for efficiency (output) and legitimacy (input). The aim of this article is to integrate various research strands into the comparative study of territorial politics, with federal studies at its core. As an example of a conceptual payoff, ‘political territoriality’ refers the observer to three dimensions of the strategic use of areal boundaries for political power. By focusing on territory as a key variable of political systems, the actors, processes and institutions are first analytically separated and continuously measured, enhancing internal validity, and then theoretically integrated, which allows more valid external inferences than classic, legal-institutionalist federal studies. After discussing the boundaries and substance of comparative territorial politics as a federal discipline, political territoriality is developed towards an analytical framework applicable to politics at any governmental level. The claims are modest: political territoriality does not serve so much as an explanatory concept as rather an ‘attention-directing device’ for federal studies.

Politische Grundfragen und Nationalbewusstsein

Die Nationalhymne soll mittels eines von der SGG ausgeschriebenen Wettbewerbs erneuert werden. – Das Verbot für Parteianlässe auf dem Rütli wird gelockert. –Diskussionen um ein Jubiläum zur Schlacht bei Marignano 1515 decken parteipolitisch unterschiedliche Geschichtsbilder auf. – Direktdemokratische Entscheidungen beeinflussen das Bild der Schweiz im Ausland. – Zukunftsängste und Sorgen nehmen im Vergleich zu den Vorjahren ab; das Vertrauen in die politischen Institutionen bleibt ungebrochen hoch.