Regional Identities and Regionalization in East-Central Europe

Abstract

An Austrian geographer assesses efforts of candidate countries for European Union membership to create systems of regions within their borders that satisfy EU require-ments (that candidate countries develop systems of strong regions to counterbalance national-ist tendencies engendered by concentration of political power at the nation state level). The designated regional systems of Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, and Romania are evaluated according to such criteria as size/socioeconomic com-plexity and identity. Identity includes such dimensions as regional self-governance and politi-cal authority, spatial coincidence with cultural or historical regions, and congruence with central-place hinterlands.