Several countries have experienced processes of decentralization, federalization, and devolution in the last four decades. The regional (sub-national) political arenas gained political competences and jurisdiction over a large number of relevant fields, broadly influencing citizens’ everyday life. With those processes, the newly created or transformed regional arenas – and their institutions and elites – became particularly important political entities, interacting with the national statewide ones, and influencing and shaping them in many ways. This is why the study of sub-state or regional arenas and their institutions matters, as well as that of their linkages, cooperation, and coordination relationships with national-wide ones. This chapter analyses how national and regional parliaments interact in Spain and Portugal.

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