A Regional Rescue of the Nation-State: Changing Regional Perspectives on Europe

[From the introduction]. Milward’s work has been influential in the intergovernmentalist traditions of analysis of the EU. This paper is not meant in any direct sense as a contribution to the debates intergovernmentalists have had with others. The analogy with Milward is first and foremost about how governments at one level can (try to) instrumentalise the resources and opportunities available to governments at another. For Milward 'nation-state' (that is, member state2) central governments fostered and instrumentalised an emergent transnational structure of government to achieve their own interests. This paper argues that regional governments have increasingly sought to instrumentalise member state central governments as a means of achieving their interests, that is preserving the meaning of regional law-making powers. It commences with a discussion of the conditions which prompt regional 'mobilisation' (Hooghe 1995) in the EU before examining in turn the three distinct strategies through which legislative regions have sought to realise their aims in the EU

La dévolution au Royaume-Uni : anatomie d’un processus de réforme

Les réformes qui ont donné lieu à la dévolution au Royaume-Uni depuis l’élection du Parti travailliste en 1997, sous la direction du premier ministre Tony Blair, ont permis une décentralisation radicale des pouvoirs au sein d’un pays aux traditions les plus centralistes d’Europe. Cet article propose un compte rendu des arguments (historiques et plus récents) ayant conduit au processus de dévolution et à la délégation des pouvoirs accordés aux institutions en Écosse, au Pays de Galles, en Irlande du Nord, à Londres et dans les régions anglaises. Ces pouvoirs sont asymétriques; ils ne sont pas les mêmes et sont d’envergure différente selon les lieux. La dernière partie du texte examine certaines des tensions découlant de la mise en oeuvre de ce système complexe et asymétrique de dévolution gouvernementale.The devolution reforms introduced in the United Kingdom since the election of the Labour government under Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1997 mark a radical decentralisation of power in what had been one of Europe's most centralised political traditions. This article sets out the historical and contemporary arguments which led to the devolution process and the powers allocated to the devolved institutions in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, London and the English regions. These powers are asymmetrical; different places have different sets and scopes of powers. The final section explores some of the tensions involved in the operation of this complex, asymmetrical system of devolved government

The Myth and the Paradox of ‘Uniform Living Conditions’ in the German Federal System

A paradox exists within the context of the German federal system. On one side stands a strong view that pervades society and academia that the German system strives for and produces uniform policy outcomes across the heterogeneous Länder, which is at odds with what one is conditioned to expect from a federal state. On the other side sits research and findings, though less common, that Germany does and has historically had diverse policy outcomes. This article starts to unwind the puzzle on how two views that appear to be diametrically opposed to one another co-exist in Germany

Introduction to the special issue : reframing German Federalism

In recent years, Germany’s federal system has been subject to a number of pressures for change. A constitutional debate on ‘disentangling’ the legislative roles of federal and Länder institutions which stuttered through the 1990s and into the 2000s finally led to a re-allocation of competences in 2006. These reforms shifted some areas of legislative responsibility from the federal to the Länder level and relaxed rules which had earlier justified a federal override when both levels held legislative responsibilities concurrently. At the very least, these constitutional adjustments increased the potential for policy outputs to diverge from one Land to another and give expression to territorial differences in priority and preference

Regional policy variation in Germany:the diversity of living conditions in a 'unitary federal state'

The German federal system is conventionally understood as highly co-ordinated between federal and regional governments and aimed at producing a 'uniformity' of living conditions. This view has increasingly been challenged as new work focuses on innovation and diversity at the regional level, and also as a consequence of reforms to the federal system that took place in 2006. This contribution attempts to establish a more systematic basis for assessing and explaining the scope and significance of regional policy variation in Germany. Our findings suggest that - despite institutional structures that foster intense co-ordination between central and regional governments and apparent popular preferences for uniformity of policy outcomes - the extent of policy variation in Germany is much greater than conventionally understood and driven both by structural factors and partisan choices at the regional level