Devolution and power in the United Kingdom

Description

Devolution and power in the United Kingdom is concerned with a paradox – why devolution has enabled different approaches to government and policy-making to develop in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland after 1999, while a close examination of the structure of devolution suggests that the UK government retains control over most key aspects of the UK.

Presenting original research, this book is the first comprehensive examination of intergovernmental relations in the devolved UK. It also examines how the UK’s practices relate to those practised in other decentralised and federal states, and adopts a resource dependency framework to examine the impact of devolution on the territorial distribution of power in the United Kingdom. It explains the paradox of autonomy and control as a form of ‘conditional autonomy’, which has been possible because of the benign political circumstances that have accompanied devolution’s early years – but which may not survive in rougher conditions.

1. Introduction: territory, devolution and power in the United Kingdom – Alan Trench

2. The United Kingdom as a state of unions: unity of government, equality of political rights and diversity of institutions – James Mitchell

3. The framework of devolution: the formal structure of devolved power – Alan Trench

4. Funding devolution: the power of money – David Bell and Alex Christie

5. The politics of devolution finance and the power of the treasury – Alan Trench

6. The practical outcomes of devolution: policy-making across the UK – Alan Trench and Holly Jarman

7. The fragile divergence machine: citizenship, policy divergence, and devolution – Scott L. Greer

8. Washing dirty linen in private: the processes of intergovernmental relations and the resolution of disputes – Alan Trench

9. The parties and intergovernmental relations – Martin Laffin, Eric Shaw & Gerald Taylor

10. The European Union, devolution and power – Charlie Jeffery & Rosanne Palmer

11. The United Kingdom as a federalised or regionalised union – Ronald Watts

12. Conclusion: devolution and the territorial distribution of power in the UK – Alan Trench

Alan Trench is Research Fellow at the Europa Institute, the University of Edinburgh

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