This innovative volume marks the debut of an exhaustive political science typology of European power-sharing systems. It covers the EU as well as federal and quasi-federal regional states, such as Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, but also asymmetric cases from other European states with constitutional regions. A detailed and systematic focus is laid on the models and structures related to how powers are allocated, on the tensions between the centre and the periphery, on practical problems and power conflicts in selected policy areas as well as on reform proposals. An international team of authors analyses current developments at the European and national levels and draws lessons from comparative political science. The editors are members of the Research Centre on Federalism at the University of Innsbruck. With contributions by: Dr. Maria Ackrén, Prof. Dr. Marco Brunazzo, Prof. Dr. César Colino, Prof. Dr. Srdjan Djordjevic, Dr. Malcolm Harvey, Prof. Ayudante Dr. Angustias Hombrado, ao. Univ.-Prof. Dr.Ferdinand Karlhofer, Dr. Soeren Keil, MMag Dr.Manfred Kohler, Dr. Sean Müller, Univ.-Prof. DDr. Günter Pallaver, Dr. Bettina Petersohn, Univ.-Prof. Dr.Simona Piattoni, Mag. Marija Radosavljevic, Prof. Dr.Roland Sturm, Prof. Dr. Adrian Vatter, Prof. Dr. Jens Woelk