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Public Policy and Administration
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Comparative British Central-Local Relations

Regional Centralism, Governance and Intergovernmental Relations

Martin Laffin

Durham University, UK, martin.laffin{at}durham.ac.uk

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.

Key Words: Britain • central-local relations • devolution • England • local government • Scotland • Wales

Public Policy and Administration, Vol. 22, No. 1, 74-91 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0952076707071505
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