State structures and the limits of agency: governing the transformation from coal in Australia

To what extent do subnational differences in the configurations of formal and informal institutions shape the relative capacities of state and regional agents? This article considers the distribution of capacities and powers among regional actors, as defined by their organizational roles and the power of the state. After comparing the management of economic change in two peripherally located and coal-dependent areas in different States in Australia, the article concludes that accounts of institutional change in regional studies have paid insufficient attention to the limitations on agency arising from organizational positioning and the 'top down' assertion of state power.