Regional identities and regionalization in East-Central Europe

An Austrian geographer assesses efforts of candidate countries for European Union membership to create systems of regions within their borders that sa tisfy EU requirements (that candidate countries develop systems of strong r egions to counterbalance nationalist tendencies engendered by concentration of political power at the nation state level). The designated regional sys tems of Poland, the Czech Rt-public, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, and Romania are evaluated according to such criteria as size/socioeconomic complexity and identity. Identity includes such dimensions as regional self -governance and political authority, spatial coincidence with cultural or h istorical regions, and congruence with central-place hinterlands.