Comparative British Central-Local Relations
- 1 January 2007
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Public Policy and Administration
- Vol. 22 (1), 74-91
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0952076707071505
Abstract
This article examines three key, possible post-devolution trends relating to central-local relations in England, Scotland and Wales. First, the Scottish and Welsh cases indicate that devolution does not inevitably lead to regional centralism and that central-local relations at the regional or intermediate levels are less competitive and more collaborative where a power balance or symmetry exists between the intermediate and the local level. Second, post-devolution differences in how the public services are being restructured in England, Scotland and Wales suggest that the trend towards governance is not immutable but at least partly a matter of political choice. Third, even so the post-devolution policy similarities between the metropolitan centre and the two devolved territories remain pronounced with a pattern of continued policy tracking, through which the dominance of the metropolitan centre is maintained indirectly rather than directly.Keywords
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