This panel consists of 5 papers analyzing the territoriality of politics through a policy and polity angle. The first contribution, by Garritzmann, Kleider, and Röth, analyses territorial variation in education policy, using regional level data in a time-series cross-sectional design and draws our attention to the role of party politics and territorial variation in this policy area. The second contribution by Zuber analyses the issue of immigrant integration policies at the regional level. Just like education, this policy question has been mostly studied at the national or local levels, hence overlooking the role played by regional authorities. She draws our attention to the role played by identity and party competition dynamics. The third contribution, by Tatham and Bauer, has a look at the competence allocation preferences of regional élites across 18 policy fields (including immigration and education) and 3 levels of government. They highlight the role played by identity and endogenous growth, to the detriment of functional pressures. The fourth contribution, by León, Jurado, and Madariaga, builds on the previous three papers to explore the consequences of power dispersion from an accountability viewpoint especially in terms of the impact of decentralization on responsibility attribution – a key element of electoral democracy. This line of enquiry if furthered by the final contribution by Fossum who explores federalization and de-federalisation processes in democratic settings. He thereby provides insights into how federalization dynamics interact with democratic attributes.