{"id":5411,"date":"2018-11-05T12:21:32","date_gmt":"2018-11-05T10:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/?p=5411"},"modified":"2018-11-06T21:50:24","modified_gmt":"2018-11-06T19:50:24","slug":"citizen-representations-of-regional-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/citizen-representations-of-regional-democracy\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Citizen representations of regional democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sixteen of France\u2019s twenty-one metropolitan regions in 2014 were redrawn in January 2015. In this new context, what is citizens\u2019 relationship to their new region? Are they attached to it? What do they think about the new name? What do they know about new actions taken and how do they assess them? Sylvain Brouard, research director of Sciences Po\u2019s Center for Political Research, studies these questions as part of a \u201cregional democracy\u201d project (DEMOREG 2018-2020) funded by the region of Nouvelle \"French<\/a>Aquitaine.<\/p>\n

Broader powers, new representatives, and new compositions<\/b><\/p>\n

This project originated with the observation that issues surrounding this merger intensified during its implementation. This was particularly the case with regard to services and public policies, which created a real challenge for both political players and citizens.<\/p>\n

Indeed, regions were granted new powers with redefined boundaries for each territorial collectivity, and are now at the heart of economic action, playing a major role in the development of the regional blueprint for economic development, innovation, and internalization (SRDEII) and the regional blueprint for the planning and sustainable development of territories (SRADDT).
\nIn addition to these institutional transformations, a political change occurred in a number of regions after the December 2015 vote: some experienced a changeover, and others, a new president without a new majority.
\nIn this new context, what is citizens\u2019 relationship to their region?<\/p>\n

Addressing all the dimensions of this question requires studying key factors shaping the success or failure of regionalization policy. These include the territorial and socio-demographic homogeneity of relationships to the region.<\/p>\n

Online survey<\/b><\/p>\n

\"Lyon,<\/a>DEMOREG assesses implementation of the 2015 regional reform and political changes from a longitudinal and comparative perspective thanks to annual online public opinion surveys (in January 2018 -2019 -2020) of a sample of 500 citizens in each of the regions.
\nThe results of these surveys are especially important because such data is new in France. Granted, research on regional institutionalization dynamics (Nay, 1997), on the characteristics of regional representatives (Godmer, 2011), and on the professionalization of regional elective offices (Godmer &Marrel, 2015) have been conducted, but rarely so on citizen representations of regional governments and their policies.
\nFinally, DEMOREG expands research conducted by Sylvain Brouard on the evolutions of political attitudes and behaviors, and on local governments.<\/p>\n

Ambitious research<\/b><\/p>\n

DEMOREG 2018-2020 is an ambitious research project that has not been conducted in France since the Interregional Policy Observatory \u00a0(Observatoire Inter-r\u00e9gional du Politique<\/a> \u2013 OIP) stopped. Its main objectives are to:<\/p>\n