Tightly supervised regionalization: The Czech example of regionalization without regionalism

One of the principal reforms made during the post-Communist era in central and eastern European countries has been the establishment of regional structures. It occurred while a wave of regionalization was sweeping over western Europe. Unlike in the West however, where grassroots political, economic and social forces were at work (along with external factors such as globalization and Europeanization), regionalization in the Czech Republic took place in the absence of any mobilization of regional or regionalist forces. Regional construction was launched at the top of the state, on the initiative of the ruling elites who wanted to both rationalize the operation of the territorial administration and, above all, maintain their control over state power and resources. What kind of regional forces might emerge out of the establishment of regions and, as a consequence, the reception of EU structural funds?