Architecture of the regional representation in systems of multilevel relations

Abstract

The paper analyses the complex of institutions that perform the functions of regional representation in the context of global transformation of territorial and political systems. It is noted that glocalisation as a specific process of the second half of the twentieth century has led to: 1) the rise of the role of regions of different scales in the implementation of the global action programme aimed at ensuring the needs and human rights, interests of local regional communities, 2) strengthening the functional capacity of subnational regions by reducing the distance of political participation in supranational integration macro-regional systems. The paper demonstrates the theoretical and methodological basis for the formation of a new architecture of glocal political relations, which is constructed on the basis of the following principles: rejection of "methodological nationalism", accompanied by the definition of localities and regions as the main object of research; replacement of the top-down logic of analysis (from the state to regions and localities) with the bottom-up logic (from self-government systems to national systems and supranational systems such as the EU); substantiation of political space as the result of cooperation of social and political actors. The paper is built around several problems of constitutionalising regional representation in political systems: 1) the correlation of territorial and political contexts of regional participation in systems of macro-regional integration interaction; 2) electoral systems that technically provide models of representation; 3) parliamentary supranational macro-regional representation, by which each elected region represents itself in the global context of international relations; 4) parliamentary and extra-parliamentary ways of representing subnational regions. The paper concludes that the process of institutionalisation of extra-parliamentary forms of regional representation is underway, which are replacing the traditional form of territorial representation represented by bicameralism. The modern logic of institutionalisation is based on the recognition of asymmetric functionally determined forms of representation of regional interests in networks of intergovernmental structures, built not so much on the basis of the representation model as on the basis of participation and coordination.