"Regional Governance" in England

verfasst von

Rainer Danielzyk, Gerald Wood

Abstract

Devolution in England has been high on New Labour's political agenda ever since the 1997 Labour Party Manifesto (the year of the landslide victory in the General Election). It was conceived of as a means to improve the overall functioning of public-sector activities on the regional level and as a way of making that involvement more democratically accountable. After the successful first "wave" of devolution to the Celtic Fringe, the North-East was chosen as the first region in England where a referendum would be held in order to fathom public support for elected Regional Assemblies and in order to subsequently establish such an Assembly, depending on the outcome of the referendum. The North East suffers particularly under recent economic restructuring with a decline in its traditional industries, a stagnant population growth and an equally stagnant gross national product. As it turned out, a vast majority (80 %) of the voters was against the proposal. The failure of the referendum can be seen as an indication of the many-faceted problems which the process of devolution in England is confronted with. However, this does not mean that issues of governance reform on the regional level in England are off the agenda now. It does send out the clear message, though, that a technocratically conceived form of decentralisation from "above" does not find sufficient public support.

Externe Organisation(en)

Institut für Landes- und Stadtentwicklungsforschung gGmbH (ILS)
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (WWU)

Typ

Artikel

Journal

Geographische Rundschau

Band

58

Seiten

12-20

Anzahl der Seiten

9

ISSN

0016-7460

Publikationsdatum

05.2006

Publikationsstatus

Veröffentlicht

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Geografie, Planung und Entwicklung, Gewässerkunde und -technologie, Energie (insg.), Atmosphärenwissenschaften