chapter 15
...................................................................................................................................................TERRITORIAL
INSTITUTIONS
...................................................................................................................................................jean-claude thoenig
Territorial politics as social and political constructs are major issues for govern-
ment and for policy-making. Studying its properties and its dynamics shapes a
domain of its own in social sciences. The present chapter presents dominant
approaches that structure knowledge about center–periphery relationships. It also
summarizes keyWndings from a comparative perspective.
1 The Territory as a Social and
Political Construct
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ReXecting a federalist or pluralist perspective, the object of territorial politics is often
called intergovernmental relationships. In centralized nation states inXuenced by
Roman law, it is rather deWned as the study of center–local relationships.
Relating territorial administration and political authority is a fundamental
problem for public institutions and polities. The distribution of governmental