This study aims to analyze the effect of different models of federalism on the accountability for public policies. In general, our objective is to analyze the effect of three dimensions, which according to Hooghe et al (2010, 2016) constitute federal models: autonomy in the political representation of regional governments, fiscal autonomy of these governments, and autonomy in the field of public policies. In particular, our research focuses on the analysis of the effect of a higher —or lower— degree of self-government in the accountability for social policies —i.e. health policy—. In so doing, our research seeks to answer, empirically and in comparative perspective, the following research question: what is the effect of different federal models on the accountability for social policies?

On the one hand, our research seeks to analyze and measure, in a comparative perspective, the level of accountability in social policies. On the other hand, drawing from the research undertaken by Hooghe et al (2010, 2016), this study aims to identify different federal models on the basis of the variations of three dimensions: autonomy in the political representation of governments, fiscal autonomy, and autonomy in public policies.

Once the different degrees of self-governance and levels of accountability are identified, the study seeks to identify, from an empirical point of view, which model — i.e. unitary, federal— produces better outcomes from the perspective of accountability in social policies. The empirical analysis will be focused on Western European countries —in particular, member countries of the European Union— with different unitary and federal government models.