This book systematically examines regional-level qualities of democracy – representation, participation, and competition – in four countries of Central and Eastern Europe between 1994 and 2022 – from the establishment of regional self-government to present day.

Focussing on their common EU accession as representing a critical juncture in their processes of consolidation and/or destabilization of liberal democratic patterns of government on both national and subnational levels, the book applies a conceptual framework on the quality of subnational democracy. It provides a clear methodological approach to observe quality, and the variability in quality, of democracy across various regions, and its transformation through long-term comparisons. As such, the book contributes to understanding some of the processes of more than thirty years of Central and Eastern European regional politics, offering conceptual clarifications applicable to research conducted in other contexts.

This book is of key interest to scholars and students of democracy, electoral politics, Central and East European politics, local politics, representation and more broadly to comparative politics.