This authoritative survey highlights the emergence of the meso - an intermediate level of government between the locality and the centre. In northern Europe this distinctive dimension tends to take the form of a refurbished county or Land; in southern Europe it usually comprises an entirely new elected regional government.

The rise of the meso, argue Sharpe and his co-authors, constitutes one of the most important institutional changes in the modern western state in the past twenty years. Important, as is shown here, not simply in terms of the power it wields but because it has radically altered the character of the state, and even called into question the very nature of the unitary state.

Sophisticated in its analysis of the underlying processes leading to this development, the book provides detailed case studies of the evolution and powers of the meso level in different European countries, and of the political, social and economic forces that give it momentum. For anyone with an interest in government and administration, this thorough and coordinated study of the meso level in Europe offers an up-to-date account of one of the most significant political phenomena of recent times.