Liesbet Hooghe, W.R. Kenan Distinguished Professor of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gary Marks, Burton Craige Professor of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Arjan H. Schakel, Assistant Professor of Research Methods, Maastricht University, Sandra Chapman Osterkatz, Visiting Research Fellow, VU University Amsterdam, Sara Niedzwiecki, Assistant Professor, University of New Mexico, and Sarah Shair-Rosenfield, Assistant Professor, Arizona State University

Liesbet Hooghe is the W.R. Kenan Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Chair in Multilevel Governance at the VU University Amsterdam. Her interests lie in European integration, multilevel governance, decentralization, international organization, elite studies, and public opinion. Recent books include The European Commission in the 21st Century (OUP, 2013), The Rise of Regional Authority (Routledge, 2010), The Commission and The Integration of Europe (CUP, 2002), and Multilevel Governance and European integration (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001). She is co-editor of the series, Transformations in Governance, with OUP.

Gary Marks is Burton Craige Professor of Political Science at UNC-Chapel Hill, and holds the Chair in Multilevel Governance at the VU, Amsterdam. In 2010 he was awarded a Humboldt Forschungspreis (Humboldt Research Prize) for his contributions to Political Science, and was recipient of an Advanced European Research Council Grant (2010-2015). Marks has published widely in the leading journals of Political Science and Sociology. His (co-)authored books include i Multi-Level Governance and European Integrationr (2001), i It Didn't Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United Statesr (2003), European Integration and Political Conflict (2004), and The Rise of Regional Authority: A Comparative Study of 42 OECD Democracies (2010). He is co-editor of the series, Transformations in Governance, with OUP.

Arjan H. Schakel is Assistant Professor in Research Methods at Maastricht University. His research interests include federalism, multilevel governance, regional elections, and regional parties and his work has appeared in journals such as Comparative Political Studies, European Journal of Political Research, Party Politics, Regional Studies, and West European Politics. He is co-author of the book The Rise of Regional Authority (Routledge, 2010) and co-editor of the book Regional and National Elections in Western Europe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).

Sandra Chapman Osterkatz is a Visiting Research Fellow, at the VU University of Amsterdam. Her work has been published by Oxford University Press, the Journal of international Affairs, Latin American Politics and Society, the International Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance, and Elkarri (Spain). Her research focuses on poverty, inequality, and social policy in multilevel polities.

Sara Niedzwiecki is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of New Mexico. Her work on the politics of social policy and on multilevel governance has been published by Oxford University Press, Latin American Politics and Society, Journal of Politics in Latin America, International Political Science Review, and editorials in Brazil, Germany, and Spain.

Sarah Shair-Rosenfield is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Arizona State University. Her research focuses on political institutions, electoral and party systems, female political representation, political decentralization, and executive-legislative relations in Southeast Asia and Latin America. Her work has been published in Electoral Studies, Political Research Quarterly, the Journal of Politics in Latin America and the Journal of East Asian Studies.

"Measuring Regional Authority provides a welcome piece of scholarship on how such tensions in comparative political analysis might best be balanced. By providing a robust comparative measure of within-state regional authority, this book will significantly benefit exploration of meso-governments and the causes and consequences of variation in their authority...All scholars of comparative politics, especially students of federalism, multilevel governance, and state devolution and decentralization must familiarize themselves with Measuring Regional Authority." - Thomas D. Lancaster, Publius: The Journal of Federalism