The Europeanization of Regional Interest Groups Catalonia, Tuscany and Wales in a comparative perspective Facundo A. Santiago López Director: Nuria Font Doctorat en Ciència Política “Pensar i Governar les societats complexes” Departament Ciència Política i Dret Públic Facultat Ciències Polítiques i Sociologia Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona This thesis has been written with the support of a PIF2008 scholarship from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona II Contents 1 INTRODUCTION 1 2 RESEARCH DESIGN 7 2.1 CONCEPTUALIZING EUROPEANIZATION ............................................................................................ 8 2.1.1 EUROPEANIZATION AND REGIONAL ACTORS ....................................................................................... 15 2.1.2 EUROPEANIZATION, INTEREST GROUPS AND MEDIATING FACTORS ........................................................ 20 2.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS, HYPOTHESES AND MAIN VARIABLES .............................................................. 31 2.3 RESEARCH STRATEGY ................................................................................................................. 35 2.3.1 OPERATIONALIZING EUROPEANIZATION: THE EUROPEANIZATION INDEX ................................................. 38 2.3.2 OPERATIONALIZING REGIONAL AUTHORITY: THE REGIONAL AUTHORITY INDEX ........................................ 45 2.3.3 DEFINING MEDIATING FACTORS ....................................................................................................... 49 2.3.4 POLICY AND REGION SELECTION ...................................................................................................... 52 2.3.5 CASE SELECTION ........................................................................................................................... 55 2.3.6 DATA: DOCUMENTS AND INTERVIEWS ............................................................................................... 57 3 REGIONAL INTEREST GROUPS IN CATALONIA 61 3.1 SPANISH REGIONALISM AND THE CASE OF CATALONIA ...................................................................... 63 3.2 REGIONAL AUTHORITY IN CATALONIA ........................................................................................... 65 3.3 ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY IN CATALONIA ........................................................................................ 68 3.4 THE EUROPEANIZATION OF RIGS IN CATALONIA .............................................................................. 70 3.4.1 CATALAN ENVIRONMENTAL RIGS ..................................................................................................... 71 3.4.2 CATALAN RURAL RIGS ................................................................................................................... 82 3.4.3 CATALAN INDUSTRIALIST RIGS ......................................................................................................... 92 3.4.4 DIMENSIONS OF EUROPEANIZATION COMPARED IN CATALONIA ........................................................... 104 3.5 MEDIATING FACTORS IN CATALONIA ........................................................................................... 107 3.6 FINAL REMARKS ON THE CASE OF CATALONIA ................................................................................ 111 4 REGIONAL INTEREST GROUPS IN TUSCANY 113 4.1 ITALIAN REGIONALISM AND THE CASE OF TUSCANY ........................................................................ 115 4.2 REGIONAL AUTHORITY IN TUSCANY ............................................................................................ 119 III 4.3 ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY IN TUSCANY ........................................................................................ 121 4.4 THE EUROPEANIZATION OF RIGS IN TUSCANY .............................................................................. 122 4.4.1 TUSCAN ENVIRONMENTAL RIGS .................................................................................................... 123 4.4.2 TUSCAN RURAL RIGS ................................................................................................................... 131 4.4.3 TUSCAN INDUSTRIALIST RIGS ........................................................................................................ 141 4.4.4 DIMENSIONS OF EUROPEANIZATION COMPARED IN TUSCANY .............................................................. 150 4.5 MEDIATING FACTORS IN TUSCANY ............................................................................................. 154 4.6 FINAL REMARKS ON THE CASE OF TUSCANY .................................................................................. 157 5 REGIONAL INTEREST GROUPS IN WALES 159 5.1 BRITISH REGIONALISM AND THE CASE OF WALES ........................................................................... 161 5.2 REGIONAL AUTHORITY IN WALES ............................................................................................... 164 5.3 ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY IN WALES ........................................................................................... 167 5.4 THE EUROPEANIZATION OF RIGS IN WALES ................................................................................. 168 5.4.1 WELSH ENVIRONMENTAL RIGS ...................................................................................................... 170 5.4.2 WELSH RURAL RIGS .................................................................................................................... 181 5.4.3 WELSH INDUSTRIALIST RIGS .......................................................................................................... 192 5.4.4 DIMENSIONS OF EUROPEANIZATION COMPARED IN WALES ................................................................. 204 5.5 MEDIATING FACTORS IN WALES ................................................................................................ 207 5.6 FINAL REMARKS ON THE CASE OF WALES ..................................................................................... 210 6 EUROPEANIZATION OF REGIONAL INTEREST GROUPS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE 213 7 CONCLUSIONS 225 8 BIBLIOGRAPHY 237 9 ANNEXES 253 9.1 INTERVIEW LIST ..................................................................................................................... 253 9.2 INTERVIEW MODEL ................................................................................................................. 254 9.3 RIG INFO FILES ...................................................................................................................... 256 9.3.1 CATALONIA ................................................................................................................................ 256 9.3.2 TUSCANY ................................................................................................................................... 262 9.3.3 WALES ...................................................................................................................................... 268 IV Acknowledgements This has not been an easy journey. Since I first started thinking about applying to a PHD to this final moment, it has been eight years of intense work and commitment. The path towards a finished thesis is plagued with challenges and difficulties, but also with successes and achievements. And it is a journey that is impossible to complete alone. A taste for constant classification is one of the acquired qualities of a social scientist, so it is accurate to start my acknowledgements by stating that there are two different types of people I wish to thank: those who helped me professionally and those who helped me personally. On the first group, I would most importantly like to mention my thesis director Nuria Font. She has been an inspiration since the first days of the PhD Programme. She has pushed me when I needed encouragement and directed me in the right path when I went astray. She was always generous with her help and corrections, and was there with a helping hand even when I was thousands of kilometres away. For her, I have my sincerest admiration and gratitude. I would like to mention Prof. Joaquim M. Molins, the director of the PhD Programme “Pensar i Governar les societats complexes”, who not only accepted me into the programme, but also helped me obtain the PIF 2008 Scholarship that funded most of this work. In this line, I would like to thank immensely the UAB for their support. On a professional level, I would like to mention John Etherington, Ana Mar Fernández and Eva Ostergaard-Nielsen, who helped me with their comments in different stages of this process. I would also like to mention the guidance of Prof. Michael Keating during my stage at the EUI in Florence, and Prof. Joan Costa-i-Font during my stage at the LSE in London. Finally, a special mention goes to Prof. Francesc Morata, whose support was instrumental for most of us working in European studies, and who will be sadly missed. V Of course, as always, there are subjects that defy classification. This is the case of those friends at the UAB and abroad who have also helped me academically, mostly during countless lunches. A dedicated mention goes to my office partners: Ivan Medina Iborra, who has helped me constantly and guided me towards obscure papers on our subject; and Patricia Correa Vila, who has always supported me and helped with any bureaucratic trouble I encountered. The second group of people I wish to thank are those who helped me on a more personal level. Of course, my parents and my three beautiful sisters, who have always