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This paper explores the new multi-level relationships that exist in the UK postdevolution. In focusing on Wales, it uses two case studies to test some key propositions around system weaknesses; namely, poor intelligence and inadequate collaboration and communication between the ‘centre’ and the devolved nations. The paper suggests that this has resulted in unbalanced relationships and underdeveloped policy learning between the nations of the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

How do British Pluralist traditions need to be re-imagined to address the issues at the heart of the Brexit vote? This paper will use qualitative research about why Britain voted for Brexit to examine this question. The paper interrogates the question that we require a more decentred local government at a community level in order for people to feel both represented, and able to participate. Firstly, it will analyse the values, attitudes and beliefs of Leave voters who participated in the study, and situate them in terms of the affective assemblages of symbolic meaning, ideas, beliefs, values and emotion through which they imagined themselves and their community. It will examine the 'deep story' (Boler and Davis, in Emotion Space Soc 27:75–85, 2018) through which participants affective responses are situated into inherited historical cultures and traditions, exploring where participants located themselves in relation to others and their particular cultures and traditions. In the final part of the paper, I consider what this means for British pluralist traditions at a local and community level in a post-Brexit polity. I find that the Leave vote signals and symbolises a turn to the traditional Nation State as the political space that can protect and care for individuals who long for control over their worlds. This is potentially at odds with their expressed desire stronger democratic engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Set against a background of failing housing markets and years of austerity, with spending cuts to many of the public services traditionally involved in housing, the UK Government's ambition to deliver 300,000 new homes a year was always going to be a challenge. At the same time however, a programme of devolution to city regional bodies across England has provided the opportunity to test new approaches to support housing growth, with the potential for innovation and more tailored interventions designed around the needs of a specific place. This paper uses experience in the Sheffield City Region to illustrate the challenges and opportunities for housing growth in one part of the country as well as the interventions being developed to address these. The paper sets out some of the geographic and economic factors shaping the housing sector in the city region, and the role that housing growth has come to play in the wider economic ambitions for the area. It then describes some of the plans and programmes being developed to encourage the development of new homes and the success of a pilot Housing Fund could have in overcoming problems where national programmes have failed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the decades since the Conference on Devolution's proceedings concluded in stalemate in April 1920, the Conference has been consigned to the margins of political and constitutional history. However, within this limited literature, one interpretation of the Conference's proceedings has been universally held: that the subject of the powers the devolved legislatures should enjoy was a rare source of consensus. This article challenges this orthodoxy, using archival evidence from the Conference to demonstrate that while a consensus on powers may have existed on paper, such agreement certainly did not exist in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyses the recent reorganisation of sub-national planning in England. The abrupt termination in 2010 of regional spatial strategies (RSSs) left England as the only major country in north-western Europe without effective sub-national governance structures (outside London) for spatial planning. Drawing on in-depth interviews with public-sector planners and other research material, this paper analyses the impacts of the demise of regional planning for ‘larger-than-local’ policy coordination in England. The paper seeks to question whether localism can succeed where regionalism is perceived to have failed in dealing effectively with the strategic spatial dilemmas integral to planning. It concludes by assessing whether the evolving decentralised forms of sub-national governance (combined authorities and local enterprise partnerships (LEPs)) emerging through the government’s ‘devolution revolution’ can develop to fill the current strategic planning void and resurrect some form of spatial planning throughout England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Devolution has become a key 'global trend' over recent decades as many states have decentralised power to sub-state governments. The UK resisted this trend until the late 1990s when devolution was enacted by the then Labour Government, taking a highly asymmetrical form in which different territories have been granted different powers and institutional arrangements. Devolution allows the devolved governments to develop policies that are tailored to the needs of their areas, encouraging policy divergence, although this is countered by pressures to ensure that devolved approaches do not contradict those of the central state, promoting convergence. This review paper aims to assess the unfolding dynamics of devolution and policy divergence in the UK, spanning different policy areas such as economic development, health and social policy. The paper emphasises that devolution has altered the institutional landscape of public policy in the UK, generating some high-profile examples of policy divergence, whilst also providing evidence of policy convergence. In addition, the passage of time underlines the nature of UK devolution as an unfolding process. Its underlying asymmetries have become more pronounced as the tendency towards greater autonomy for Scotland and Wales clashes with a highly centralised mode of policymaking in Westminster, the consequences of which have spilt over into the devolved territories in the context of the post-2007 economic crisis through public expenditure cuts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this introductory essay, we outline how recent events have generated considerable debate and discussion surrounding the future constitutional status of Scotland and the current devolutionary settlement in the UK, and how the aim of this collection of papers is to evaluate UK devolution and the policy mobilities surrounding it. We argue that there has been a tendency for scholars to concentrate on the detail of the constitutional and administrative structures and a reluctance to theorise devolution, and suggest geographers can offer a particular contribution here through an understanding of devolution as fundamentally about the interaction of politics, culture and territory. We discuss the value of considering the particular geographies of policy at work, and the role of the everyday work of civil servants in creating and sustaining the creation of new state spaces. We then briefly highlight the main findings of each of the papers in this special collection and show how, together, they add to our understanding of the geographies of devolution and of policy at a critical juncture in the devolution story. We conclude that whatever the particular future for the United Kingdom, the policy interactions between territories will continue to have an important role in their governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with current moves toward sub-national devolution in England and the prospects for a federal government system within the United Kingdom as a whole. The initial focus of the paper is upon the contested nature and governance of regions in England. Current steps toward devolution to such regions are considered through a critical lens, before moving to a wider discussion of the theory and practice of federalism and of whether England could be part of a federal system of UK government. It is concluded that the devolution agenda may proceed in a more serious and consistent manner than at present but there are severe barriers to federalism, including major constitutional constraints, the lack of a written constitution, significant asymmetry between different nations of the UK, the lack of clarity about the definition of sub-national English regions and the lack of political will. These all render a true UK federal state impossible to envisage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay discusses how Scottish newspapers covered the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. It suggests that, in a move away from the positions they had held in the previous decade, indigenous Scottish newspapers openly suggested there was a desire for change in the form of increased devolution. As this option was not on the ballot paper, most of them proposed that increased devolution could still be achieved inside the Union. The mediated debate in the press was not about traditional notions of national identity, but about pragmatic considerations affecting everyday life, such as the future of the economy and public services. Although most of the press in its majority did not support independence, it did not wholeheartedly endorse the status quo either. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK has been engaged in an ongoing process of constitutional reform since the late 1990s, when devolved administrations were established in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. As devolution has evolved there has been a greater trend towards divergence in housing policy, which calls into question any notion of a ‘UK experience’. Whilst the 2014 Scottish independence referendum again returned constitutional reform high onto the political agenda, there still remain tensions between devolved governments and the UK Government in Westminster, with England increasingly becoming the outlier in policy terms. Informed by ideas of social constructionism, which emphasises the politics of housing, this paper draws on an analysis of policy narratives to highlight the need for greater geographical sensitivity. This requires not only more spatial nuance, but also a recognition that these differences are underpinned by divergent political narratives in different parts of the UK. This emphasis on the politics underpinning policy has relevance internationally in other geographical contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK Government claimed that its 2011 Localism Act would shift power (back) to local communities and neighbourhoods so that they can manage their affairs in their own interests. One of the principal ways this was intended to happen was through the production of Neighbourhood Development Plans (NDPs). In this paper we use a longitudinal case study of the first NDP to be adopted to analyse the extent to which it meets the expectations placed upon this new element of the English planning system, and consequently the implications for the success or otherwise of 'localism' more broadly. We explore issues including the legitimacy of localist planning processes, the capacity of communities to take the opportunities open to them and the extent to which higher tiers of governance can frame and constrain the activities of lower tiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article maps the negative reaction of the Scottish press to devolution after the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, and relates this episode to its coverage of the 2014 independence referendum. The article also considers how the rising profile of social media and a shift in Scottish public opinion towards the Yes side late in the 2014 referendum campaign highlights the decline of the traditional newspaper press in Scotland. It concludes by considering the value of the national press in Scotland to the nation's wider cultural health, and the negative implications for the state of Scottish civil society if the national press disappears. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we study judicial behavior at the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC). British judges in general, and British high court judges in particular, are perceived to be independent and isolated from political pressure and interference. Furthermore, these judges tend to show a particularly high rate of consensus. This has led many scholars to consider that, contrarily to what holds for several other courts around the world (such as the US Supreme Court), the attitudinal model does not find support when British higher court judges are considered. In this paper we assess whether similar conclusions might be drawn from the JCPC, another British court of last resort. We create a unique dataset to study empirically decisions of the JCPC and investigate the extent to which judges exhibit different judicial behavior depending on the type of appeal being brought to the court, i. e., Commonwealth, devolution and domestic appeals. Our results indicate a higher polarization of judicial behavior in the context of devolution appeals (as measured by separate opinions). We discuss these results in the context of the comparative judicial behavior literature and the role of courts in the common law world (with particular reference to human rights). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the politics of scale in the context of youth citizenship. We propose the concept of ‘brands of youth citizenship’ to understand recent shifts in the state promotion of citizenship formations for young people, and demonstrate how scale is crucial to that agenda. As such, we push forward debates on the scaling of citizenship more broadly through an examination of the imaginative and institutional geographies of learning to be a citizen. The paper's empirical focus is a state-funded youth programme in the UK – National Citizen Service – launched in 2011 and now reaching tens of thousands of 15–17 year olds. We demonstrate the ‘branding’ of youth citizenship, cast here in terms of social action and designed to create a particular type of citizen-subject. Original research with key architects, delivery providers and young people demonstrates two key points of interest. First, that the scales of youth citizenship embedded in NCS promote engagement at the local scale, as part of a national collective, whilst the global scale is curiously absent. Second, that discourses of youth citizenship are increasingly mobilised alongside ideas of Britishness yet fractured by the geographies of devolution. Overall, the paper explores the scalar politics and performance of youth citizenship, the tensions therein, and the wider implications of this study for both political geographers and society more broadly at a time of heated debate about youthful politics in the United Kingdom and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at one of the more obscure moments in British constitutional history, the rise of federal devolution in the United Kingdom in the early 20th century and, in particular, the context to the Conference on Devolution that sat between October 1919 and April 1920. The conference, as this article will briefly discuss, has been relegated to footnote status in the historiography on federal devolution and British politics. However, while the conference has not been the subject of detailed academic attention, the claim that devolution and constitutional reform in this period was a by-product of the crisis in Ireland pre-partition has gathered considerable traction among political historians. This article will redress both the paltry analysis of the Conference on Devolution within the academic literature and the Irish-centric historiography on federal devolution in the early 20th century. On the latter front, this article will demonstrate that the conference was the product of forces that extended beyond the Irish crisis, in particular parliamentary congestion. As for the conference itself, this article will use a wide range of archival sources to examine critically the conference's deliberations and in doing so will challenge prevailing assumptions regarding the supposedly one firm source of agreement during the conference: the powers that the devolved bodies should enjoy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The right home environment is essential to health and well-being, throughout life. To secure the greatest and fastest possible improvement to the health of Greater Manchester (GM) citizens, homes need to be warm and safe, affordable and accessible, secure and supportive. Devolution provides an opportunity to improve housing, and the Prevention and Early Intervention Memorandum signed in July 2015 recognises housing as an ‘enabling’ priority. For the first time (under devolution) different parts of the public sector are coming together across the conurbation to identify new, different and integrated ways of working that will bring financial and health benefits. It is proposed that a programme will be developed and directed by a multi-disciplinary task and finish group, representing the housing, health and social care sectors. This paper sets out some of the challenges, solutions and what this programme is hoping to achieve in relation to housing under the new devolution deal for GM. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Local Government in England has long bridled at the restraints on its activities imposed by an over centralised state. Yet now, with the Government proposing to devolve powers and responsibilities to newly established city region governance arrangements, is it a case of be careful what you wish for? In this paper we argue that the devolution from central government to local city regions marks the end of the old ‘politics as usual’ approach that has underpinned the resilience and effectiveness of the local government institution but failed to engage and energise local politics. In this context we pay particular attention to the Manchester model as the ‘poster city’ for devolution yet we question if even this model is sufficient to re-cast local relationships between market and state and state and citizen to enable devolution to bring real economic and social benefits to all in the city region. We conclude by suggesting there are empirical and theoretical grounds for alternative governance approaches more suitable to these times of interregnum. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper we explore the scaling of resilience policy and practice not as an effect upon infrastructure but as enacted through infrastructure. Drawing on Foucault's topological analyses of governmental power, especially his elaboration of its coeval centripetal and centrifugal flows, we argue that understanding the scaling of resilience policy and practice involves acknowledging its infrastructural composition. We examine this infrastructural scaling through an empirical analysis of UK resilience policy and practice, as recounted by those working across multiple organizations involved in planning for, and coping with, aleatory events. This reveals how the neoliberal decentralizing refrain, expressed in resilience policy and its critique, is both sustained and displaced by interwoven circulatory mechanisms of obstruction, filtration, and acceleration. Together these infrastructural flows amount to ‘fractionally coherent’ scalings that not only centralize governmental power but are constitutive of governmental centres. Our analyses of infrastructural scaling suggest that resiliency policy and practice is far less decentralized, or localized, than others have suggested, with both centripetal and centrifugal flows of power resulting from a composite of infrastructural circulatory mechanisms that can variously scale political agency in relation to aleatory events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary & Nonprofit Organizations is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Political devolution in the UK has afforded opportunities for studying policy differences and similarities in relation to local-level community-based planning initiatives in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Organised around the concepts of 'lesson-drawing' and the 'filling in' of local governance, this paper critically considers aspects of policy design and development associated with community-based planning within and between the devolved UK polities. In practice, policy instruments vary with respect to their institutional, scalar and organisational rationalities. A policy mobility perspective may enable a relatively more critical understanding of how local governance arrangements are being externally and internally shaped in the respective devolved nation-regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais is the property of Centro de Estudos Sociais and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: For as long as devolution has been debated in the UK, there has been fierce discussion as to the representation of the would‐be affected areas at Westminster. That this has been the case is a consequence of Westminster's dual remit as both a state‐wide and a sub‐state legislature. While this dual remit was relatively straightforward when applied to all nations of the UK, it does, however, raise serious questions about the equality of MPs at Westminster in the face of asymmetric devolution that would carve out parliament's remit in some, but not all, parts of the UK. These questions bedevilled Gladstone's Irish Home Rule Bills in the late 19th century and have been a recurrent feature of debate following New Labour's devolution programme in the late 1990s, culminating in the adoption of a system of ‘English Votes for English Laws’ by the house of commons in October 2015. This article looks at this issue through the lens of the ill‐fated Scotland and Wales Bill introduced by the Callaghan government in 1976. It explores the roots of the bill and how, and why, the idea of referring the question of territorial representation, post‐devolution, to a Speaker's conference, came to secure the initial support of cabinet as the best answer to this problem, and why the government swiftly changed its mind. Parliamentary statecraft considerations served to push a Speaker's conference onto the institutional agenda, before ultimately dooming it to failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Conference on Devolution, 1919–1920 has been a little studied event in Britain’s constitutional history. However, recent analysis has shed new light on this little studied moment in British constitutional history. Building on Evans (2015), this article focuses on the Conference’s deliberations on the units that would be represented by devolution (i.e. whether devolution would be on national or regional lines) to provide further evidence that the division between intra-parliamentary and directly elected devolution was a cleavage that cut through the entirety of the Conference’s work, as opposed to simply being a source of disagreement at the end of its proceedings. As this debate essentially focused on how England should be governed post-devolution, this article also sheds further light on the history of ‘the English Question’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Scotland and Wales Acts 1978 failed on multiple criteria. Although devolution of powers to Scotland and Wales was a principal policy of the Labour governments in office from 1974 to 1979, it was defeated in a guillotine vote in 1977. That defeat was orchestrated by the leaders of Tyne & Wear County Council, angry that a government of their own party was apparently neglecting their region in favour of Scotland. The project was rescued in two separate bills, but a further rebel amendment inserted a minimum assent condition in the required referendums. The people of Wales rejected the devolution they were offered. The people of Scotland accepted it, but by a margin that failed to cross the threshold. The resulting vote of confidence brought down the Labour government in March 1979. The role of Tyne & Wear County Council in killing the first bill has never been fully acknowledged. The lessons of the story for current devolution policy are explored. If the UK remains a single country, any policy for tax transfers must be fair to the English as well as to the people of the other three territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional representative models of democracy are ill-suited to the new decision-making systems which are spreading in English local government—particularly the emerging ‘devolution deals’ between local authorities and the UK Government (Whitehall). Rather than assuming that the public are not interested in an agenda that can be seen as dry and esoteric, or that complex issues around devolution and policy development can be resolved through a yes/no vote in a local referendum, local policy-makers need to think more creatively about how they use overview and scrutiny, and deliberative methods, to give voice to the aspirations of local people. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many commentators point to the rise of markets in public services such as healthcare. However, the conventional 'similarity' thesis has been challenged by the 'difference' thesis. This article critiques and extends the analysis of a recent contribution by Jane Gingrich to the 'difference thesis' with a more detailed case study of the English National Health Service ( NHS). It argues that the text tends to ignore earlier models and other associated variables; provides a rather crude monolithic characterization of 'left' and 'right'; and assumes rather than demonstrates strategic choice. It modifies some of her major conclusions: markets in public services matter (correct); markets vary in profound and important ways (correct, but perhaps in other ways); and partisan politics are central to explaining and shaping markets (perhaps over-stated). While Gingrich's 'breadth' account is persuasive at the macro-level, some questions arise from a more detailed account of the English NHS. First, it is not certain that Gingrich's typology is based on the most important dimensions. Second, her account tends to under-state the importance of issues such as the nature of contracts, price competition, regulation and policies such as Private Finance Initiative. Third, it is not clear that the Conservative healthcare market can be characterized as an Austerity Market, and the Labour market as a Consumer- Controlled Market. Fourth, this static characterization under-states the degree of change between and within governments. Lastly, it is not clear what type of market the coalition government has introduced, but this hybrid type may be marked more by policy learning than ideology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Highlights and Abstract This article: Provides an overview of the development of deliberative and participatory democracy in the UK., Critically analyses the success of consecutive UK national governments in fostering deliberative and participatory processes., Surveys the development of deliberative and participatory processes in the UK at sub-national and local level., Provides a starting point for comparative politics on deliberative and participatory democracy between the UK and other polities., This article responds to Michael Saward's call for a more context-specific approach to the study of democracy by exploring developments in, obstacles to, and prospects for, a more deliberative and participatory model of democracy in the UK. A review is undertaken first of the New Labour and coalition governments' attempts at constitutional reform, in order to assess the implications these efforts have had, and continue to have, for the institutionalisation of such a model of democracy. Despite proclamations of lofty ambition successive UK governments have wrapped themselves in the straightjacketing logic of the Westminster model of parliamentary government. As a consequence their actual proposals lack ambition and are often incoherent. The story told in this respect is therefore one of largely unrealised rhetoric. The 'largely' qualifier is included, however, in recognition of the space created by Labour's constitutional reforms for participation at the peripheries of governance. The second section of the article focuses on these spaces by, first, commenting briefly on whether the participatory aspirations of the architects of Scottish devolution have been realised before, second, examining the use of specific deliberative mechanisms-such as citizens' juries, deliberative polls and participatory budgeting-at varying locations within the political system and in public agencies and services. Evidence of democratic innovation is presented; however, any optimism on this front must be tempered, as the power-sharing potential of such mechanisms, and their capacity to move us towards a more comprehensive and joined-up deliberative system in the UK, is hampered by the lack of a facilitating institutional landscape. Finally, an overview is provided of the three remaining articles that make up this special section on deliberative and participatory democracy in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between late 2017 and 2018 the United Kingdom and the Council of Europe called a truce over prisoner voting rights, and almost no one noticed. No bells rang out, no triumphal debate took place in Westminster. All protagonists had long since exhausted their energies or, at least, turned their attentions to the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. This article evaluates the "Lidington Compromise", by which the UK Government moved to enfranchise day-release prisoners, alongside Scottish and Welsh Parliaments opening up new aspects of the confrontation by moving to enfranchise some prisoners on the basis of sentence length. It assesses the significance of these moves in the context of devolution. It also examines how these different approaches to resolving the prisoner voting issue square with the Strasbourg Court's jurisprudence and the extent to which different understandings of democratic rights now prevail across the United Kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brexit is proving epochal in its impacts on Britain. Work exploring Brexit's impact upon the structure, responsibilities and future plans of English local government is critical for anumber of reasons, from the sheer preponderance of legislation fundamentally altered in the context of the European Union Withdrawal Act of 2018, to changes in regional funding streams and alteration to the governance of local authorities. Based on the original research undertaken between 2015 and 2018 in South East England and the county of Kent, this article contributes to the body of research exploring Brexit's impact on local government. To do so, it draws on acombination of stakeholder interviews, in-house analysis, regional Brexit impact assessment reports, evidence given in 2017 to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, and the Committee's final report of April2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of the devolved governments of Scotland and Wales in promoting the voluntary Living Wage. It shows that active promotion of the Living Wage standard has emerged in both countries from a broader commitment to an economic policy of 'inclusive growth'. Employment law is not a devolved matter, and the article identifies a broad range of economic incentives and soft forms of regulation that have been used by the devolved governments to promote the Living Wage in the absence of hard power to legislate. Non‐legislative forms of state intervention are often regarded sceptically, but the article shows that the attempts of devolved governments to spread the Living Wage have been impactful, particularly in Scotland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores how Brexit is pushing the Great Britain towards aligning more closely with the rest of Europe in its politics, society, economics and international position. It mentions British withdrawal from the European Union results from the turmoil created by the 2016 referendum, along with process of withdrawal has exposed the decentralization and fragmentation in the Great Britain.

Brexit presents a major challenge to the territorial governance of the UK. Despite a major overhaul of territorial governance in 1999 when the current devolution schemes were created, and subsequent changes to those schemes, the territorial governance of the UK has not been stabilised. There remained a series of unresolved issues. Eventually, these issues would have to have been faced, but Brexit has not only forced them onto the agenda, it has done so in fraught political circumstances which make them harder to resolve. Brexit highlights already existing tensions in territorial governance, it also creates a new set of problems for the institutions and processes of territorial governance to deal with, including how to implement the changes that Brexit requires in the context of extensive devolution of power. This article, therefore, sets out the difficulties Brexit poses for territorial governance and considers the prospects for resolving them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although social security is traditionally viewed as a highly centralised function in the UK, health care and long-term social care have long been devolved to sub-state governments, an arrangement requiring extensive internal coordination agreements. This coordination has various objectives, including ensuring parity of benefits provision in Northern Ireland (where social assistance is devolved) and Great Britain (where it is centralised), securing financial reimbursements for cross-border health care provision, and determining responsibility and eligibility criteria for individuals in need of social care. Further devolution and decentralisation of social security benefits over the past decade have made such coordination arrangements even more essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the provision of media (especially broadcasting) in Wales and considers recommendations made in key reviews and reports which have sought to bring about change in how the media serve people in a devolved Wales. It provides a critical insight into how these debates have developed since 2008 and reveals how some of the monumental economic, policy, production and technological changes that have affected broadcast and digital media internationally have taken shape in Wales specifically. The chief aim is to identify how a distinctly Welsh media policy agenda is developing in the context of devolution. This research is timely given the growing political pressure from several parts of the UK both for greater accountability of broadcasting to the nations of the UK and also for substantive devolution of powers over broadcasting to their governments. The essay argues that media scholars need to pay further attention to how policy evolves in the context of multi-governmental levels such as those existing in the devolved nations of the United Kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active labour market policy has developed into a widely used and seemingly embedded approach to addressing worklessness, both in the UK and internationally. But the future of UK active labour market policy looks far from certain. Some recent developments suggest demise and diminution. But at the same time there is also evidence of more positive points, including increasing recognition of the importance of employer involvement and activity at local level. Possible future trajectories are considered in the light of emerging developments, and two potential scenarios for future UK active labour market policy are posited: 'less support, more sticks' and an 'active local labour markets approach'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets out the centrality of government to the initiation of law reform in respect of the (England and Wales) Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission (and by extension, those law reform agencies based on the British model), and then considers in the light of recent experience how the existing approach works in the unique context of a single jurisdiction -- England and Wales -- which now has two governments -- the UK Government for England, and the devolved Welsh Government. Having identified shortcomings, the article makes suggestions for improved institutional arrangements to meet the particular law reform needs of Wales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Household projections have been a critical tool in establishing top-down hierarchical frameworks through which planning systems impose new housing requirements on localities. This article re-assesses the role of household projections in the context of two recent factors. The first is the emergence of increasingly localised spatial governance arrangements that enhance the scope to challenge household projections data. The second is the gradual emergence of the economy from recession and its impact on interpretation of household projections data. A case study of planning for housing in Wales explores the ambiguities and conflicts that arise as a result of these changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article asks why institutional reforms work in one place and not another and why old ways of doing things can prove so resilient. It argues in favour of a concept of institutional formation, which is different from 'institutional design' as a time-limited event or 'institutional change' as an open-ended historical trajectory. Institutional formation is conceptualised as an animated, nested and embedded process. A multi-level framework is developed that specifies the links between institutional actors, institutional rules and institutional contexts. The model is elaborated with reference to a case study of local government reform in England, specifically the devolution of responsibilities from central government to voluntary collaborations of elected local authorities ('combined authorities'). The model is used to explain variation in the process of institutional formation in two different city-regions, focusing on the role of leaders, legacies and localities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Only one Scottish newspaper supported independence in the 2014 referendum. It was joined by The National daily newspaper in November 2014. In one of the most congested newspaper markets in the world why is there so little political diversity among an indigenous press? This article reviews the structural factors constraining ideological diversity regarding self-government in the Scottish press since devolution, and maps the emergence of Scotland's only pro-independence newspapers, the Sunday Herald and The National, and the editorial challenges of both newspapers in covering the SNP Government in Holyrood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of the devolution process that started in 1999 was frequently assumed by contemporary commentators and scholars to lead to a fractured relationship with the national centre and a fragmented state as a consequence. However, discourse analysis and policy reviews in relation to spatial planning policies demonstrates that agendas and legislation implemented by central and devolved governments since devolution are characterised by marked similarities in intention and type (albeit with some differences in name and delivery route). In investigating the potential sites and sources of these policy similarities and possible mobilities, and drawing on research data, we suggest that the British Irish Council’s spatial planning task group as one of the potential candidates to be considered as a national policy community or network. Alongside a range of other factors following devolution, this has contributed to development and delivery in one specific policy area that has taken a convergent rather than divergent character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metagovernance refers to a theory of how governments steer decentralised networks by indirectly shaping the rules and norms of those networks. This article develops metagovernance conceptually and empirically by looking at the use of ‘hands-off’ metagovernance tools in the case of English devolution, which encompass the ‘designing’ and ‘framing’ of local governance networks in the process of their reconfiguration. These concepts provide insights into how a Conservative-led Coalition Government subtly centralised power in the process of devolution to city-regions. Our analysis shows how discursive framing, fiscal conditioning and the recomposition of local governance networks produced a reworking of centre-local and intra-local power relations in a way which allowed the Treasury to shape the priorities of a set of ‘devolution deals’ with regional authorities, emphasising boosting economic growth and improving public services. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Well-being and employment activation have become central and intertwined policy priorities across advanced economies, with the mandation of unemployed claimants towards employability interventions (e.g. curriculum vitae preparation and interview skills). Compelled job search and job transitions are in part justified by the well-being gains that resulting employment is said to deliver. However, this dominant focus within the activation field on outcome well-being - the well-being improvement triggered by a transition to paid work - neglects how participation in activation schemes can itself affect well-being levels for unemployed people - what we term 'process well-being' effects. Combining theoretical literature with empirical work on the UK's large-scale quasi-marketized Work Programme activation scheme, we develop the limited existing academic discussion of process well-being effects, considering whether and how activation participation mediates the negative well-being effects of unemployment, irrespective of any employment outcomes. We further relate variation in such process well-being effects to the literature on activation typologies, in which 'thinner' work-first activation interventions are linked to weaker process well-being effects for participants compared to 'thicker' human capital development interventions. Confirming these expectations, our empirical work shows that Work Programme participants have, to date, experienced a largely 'thin' activation regime in which participants are both expected to, and empirically demonstrate, similar if not lower levels of process well-being than those who are openly unemployed. These concerning findings speak to all nations seeking to promote the well-being of unemployed people and particularly those perusing 'black box' activation schemes based around quasi-marketization, devolution and New Public Management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how a devolved government in a small country, faced with external constraints beyond its immediate control, can deploy policy resources to shape a distinctive approach to public services. We analyse recent homelessness policy in Wales using the NATO (Nodality, Authority, Treasure, Organisation) typology of tools of government proposed by Hood and Margetts, and show how this can be applied usefully to understand the choices that governments must make in conducting relationships with other institutions. We conclude that a combination of Nodality and Authority provide powerful resources for a subnational government which has only limited formal powers and fiscal autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article challenges the narrowly founded but untroubled consensus about the alleged benefits of the Conservative government's devolution programme. It suggests that too much attention has been paid to purported benefits and too little regard to the potential risks, and draws attention to international evidence that suggests that the distribution of the benefits of devolution is crucially dependent on its design. It critically examines the case for the currently offered model of devolution and finds the underpinning economic model and limited forms of democratic accountability are likely to produce regressive social outcomes and the reinforcement of existing local elites. It calls for a wider public debate and fuller democratic scrutiny of the model of devolution on offer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chancellor of the Exchequer's recent announcements to devolve decision making power from Whitehall to 30 English regions provide a challenge to use devolution to deliver more favourable health outcomes. However evaluation of devolved health models internationally is scarce, because it is rarely considered. Evidence from countries with long-standing experience of devolution finds that the best approaches are holistic, seeking fiscal freedoms to sustain the environment, promote health, well-being and citizen engagement. Overall, international outcomes are mixed, with some evidence of greater efficiency of care delivery but little hard evidence of better clinical outcomes or health status. Handling specialised services in a devolved health system is challenging. Regulation by national authorities is important to avoid gaming of the system by providers. Information from the devolved area is important in demonstrating equitable access. We present an evaluation framework and recommend that evaluation continues through governance of these deals during implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two issues currently dominate the UK's constitutional landscape: the UK's membership of the European Union ( EU) on the one hand; and the unsettled constitutional settlements between the UK and the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on the other. This article considers these two issues in concert. It stresses the distinct relationships between the EU and the devolved territories within the UK-concerning both devolved and non-devolved policy areas-highlighting the salience of a devolved perspective in any consideration of UK- EU relations. Despite its importance, sensitivity to this has been lacking. The article explores the implications of a 'Leave' or 'Remain' outcome on the future of the internal territorial dynamics within the UK. While there are too many unknowns to be certain of anything, that there will be knock-on effects is, however, beyond doubt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically analyses the debates which have unfolded in the aftermath of the Scottish independence referendum of 18 September 2014 concerning the constitutional arrangements of the UK as a plurinational state and the internal governmental structure of England. The debates unfolding in the UK reflect and illustrate two central themes in planning, territorial development and public policy. First, they highlight the contested distribution of power across multiple layers of government in states with an inherited centralized pattern of governance that are now facing strengthening regionalist and nationalist claims. Second, they illustrate the linked growth in the demand for new governance and strategic planning arrangements in large metropolitan areas with fragmented administrative and institutional boundaries. The article first discusses what the outcome of the Scottish referendum (and its aftermath) means for planning in Scotland. It then turns to the debates on devolution in the rest of UK which were stoked in the wake of the referendum, looking at the planning implications of further devolution in Northern Ireland and Wales, and at the possible consequences of the various options currently being aired to solve the ‘English question’. Finally, ongoing debates on decentralization to regions and city-regions in England are briefly considered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The factors explaining decentralized enforcement - the monitoring and reporting of illegalities in organizations by employees - remain poorly understood. This article contributes to filling this gap by presenting a study of employee reports to regulatory authorities of incidents that have taken place in British and French high hazard industries. The article distinguishes between two different registers of 'quiet' and 'loud' reporting, reflecting the varying echo of employee reports, as intended either by employees themselves or by other stakeholders. The study finds quiet reporting to be widespread in the UK, while loud reporting was salient in France only. The contrast can be explained by making reference to the relationships between unions, regulators, and managers, and the history and institutions of industrial relations that shaped them in particular ways in each country. The comparison suggests also that whistleblower protection legislation has played little role in encouraging reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]