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Devolution
Kinds of Devolution Selected AbstractsRegional Devolution and Regional Economic Success: Myths and Illusions about PowerGEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2006Ray Hudson Abstract The proposition that regional devolution in and of itself will lead to economic success has become deeply embedded in beliefs and policy discourses about the determinants of regional prosperity, and in turn has led to political demands for such devolution. In this paper I seek critically to examine such claims, using the case of the north-east of England as the setting for this examination. The paper begins with some introductory comments on concepts of power, regions, the reorganization of the state and of multi-level governance, and governmentality, which help in understanding the issues surrounding regional devolution. I then examine the ways in which north-east England was politically and socially constructed as a particular type of region, with specific problems, in the 1930s , a move that has had lasting significance up until the present day. Moving on some six decades, I then examine contemporary claims about the relationship between regional devolution and regional economic success, which find fertile ground in the north-east precisely due to its long history of representation as a region with a unified regional interest. I then reflect on the processes of regional planning, regional strategies and regional devolution, and their relationship to regional economic regeneration. A brief conclusion follows, emphasizing that questions remain about the efficacy of the new governmentality and about who would be its main beneficiaries in the region. The extent to which devolution would actually involve transferring power to the region and the capacity of networked forms of power within the region to counter the structural power of capital and shape central state policies remains unclear. [source] The Space of Local Control in the Devolution of us Public Housing PolicyGEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 4 2000Janet L. Smith Sweeping changes in national policy aim to radically transform public housing in the United States. The goal is to reduce social isolation and increase opportunities for low income tenants by demolishing ,worst case' housing, most of which is modern, high-rise buildings with high vacancy and crime rates, and replacing it with ,mixed-income' developments and tenant based assistance to disperse current public housing families. Transformation relies on the national government devolving more decision-making power to local government and public housing authorities. The assumption here is that decentralizing the responsibility for public housing will yield more effective results and be more efficient. This paper explores the problematic nature of decentralization as it has been conceptualized in policy discourse, focusing on the underlying assumptions about the benefits of increasing local control in the implementation of national policy. As this paper describes, this conceived space of local control does not take into account the spatial features that have historically shaped where and how low income families live in the US, including racism and classism and a general aversion by the market to produce affordable rental units and mixed-income developments. As a result, this conceived space of local control places the burden on low income residents to make transformation a success. To make this case, Wittgenstein's (1958) post-structural view of language is combined with Lefebvre's view of space to provide a framework in which to examine US housing policy discourse as a ,space producing' activity. The Chicago Housing Authority's Plan for Transformation is used to illustrate how local efforts to transform public housing reproduce a functional space for local control that is incapable of generating many of the proposed benefits of decentralization for public housing tenants. [source] Welfare Policymaking in the States: The Devil in Devolution by Pamela Winston, Washingnton, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2002, 332 pp., $59.95 cloth, $24.95 paper.JOURNAL OF POLICY ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2003LaDonna Pavetti [source] Devolution, equity and the English question,NATIONS AND NATIONALISM, Issue 4 2008CHRISTOPHER G. A. BRYANT ABSTRACT. Following devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, does England need a stronger political voice and/or constitutional changes to safeguard its identity and interests? (the ,English question'). Polling and other evidence suggests that it does, albeit more to redress inequities associated with voting in parliament (the ,West Lothian question') and the distribution of public spending (the ,Barnett formula') than to safeguard its identity. Although campaigners for English devolution have had little impact, and alternative institutional responses to the English question are all problematic, it would be imprudent of the major parties to do nothing. The least difficult course would be adoption of English votes on English matters and reform or replacement of the Barnett formula. [source] Between Two Unions: Europeanisation and Scottish Devolution by Paolo DardanelliNATIONS AND NATIONALISM, Issue 2 2007NICOLA McEWEN [source] Devolution and World OrderNEW PERSPECTIVES QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2000George Yeo No abstract is available for this article. [source] Adaptive Strategies of Nonprofit Human Service Organizations in an Era of Devolution and New Public ManagementNONPROFIT MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP, Issue 3 2000Jennifer Alexander This article reviews the results of a multiphase study of nonprofit human service organizations serving children and youth in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. The purpose of the study was to identify adaptation strategies organizations found effective for the current environment. The study reviews the results of longitudinal focus groups and a final workshop directed to analyzing strategies for maintaining organizational viability. Effective adaptations included strategic expansion of services and client bases, networking as a means to acquire and stabilize revenue streams and resources, and increased use of business techniques and technology to generate outcome measures and an image of effectiveness with funders. [source] Devolution and Power in the United Kingdom , Edited by Alan TrenchPARLIAMENTARY HISTORY, Issue 2 2009JAMES L. NEWELL No abstract is available for this article. [source] The Impact of Devolution on Women's Political Representation Levels in Northern IrelandPOLITICS, Issue 1 2004Tahnya Barnett Donaghy Historically, Northern Ireland women have been severely under-represented in the formal political arena. Despite the main parties having failed to address this issue, women have notably increased their presence in elected positions since the establishment of the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998. In the absence of any initiatives undertaken specifically to improve women's political status, it appears that the opportunities of devolution have facilitated these recent achievements. Specifically, the new political landscape has become more open and conducive to promoting women into positions of political power, and it is the impact of these developments that this article explores. [source] Devolution and outsourcing of municipal services in Kampala city, Uganda: an early assessment,PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 5 2003Frederick Golooba-Mutebi The late 1980s saw the beginning of wide-ranging economic and political reforms in Africa, prompted by both external and internal pressures. Demands for political reform pushed for democratisation, including decentralisation of power and resources to lower levels of government. Alongside pressures for democratisation were those for economic liberalisation, including the rolling back of the state characterised by, among other things, reducing its role in service provision. This article looks at aspects of political and economic liberalisation in Uganda, involving devolution and outsourcing of service provision in Kampala city. It focuses on the city's experience with devolution and outsourcing of solid waste management. It shows that, pockets of resistance notwithstanding, the reforms enjoyed widespread popularity and led to many positive changes. In addition, it shows that they begot problems and encountered others that rendered the process of change more problematic than its advocates had anticipated. Its major conclusion is that while devolution and outsourcing are useful tools for improving service delivery, they cannot ensure long-term success in the absence of financial, technical and managerial capacity on the part of contractors and contracting authorities. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Devolution in Uganda: an experiment in local service deliveryPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2003Robin Mitchinson The ongoing programme for reform and reduction of the public service in Uganda relies heavily on the devolution of provision and delivery of most major public services to the lowest appropriate levels (primarily the District Councils,), and therefore local government is becoming a key element in the search for new ways of governance. The rationale is that the overriding problem, as in much of Africa, is poverty and that the most effective way of tackling it is by the empowerment of the people to provide the services that they judge necessary and to decide their own local priorities in the allocation of resources. Whether the experiment succeeds will be determined in large measure by the ability and desire of the Government to ensure that local authorities have access to at least the same levels of resources as the previous service providers. Of equal importance is the capacity and ability of local government to meet the challenge, and this begs the question as to whether professional staff have the experience and competence and whether the elected members have the political skills, probity and integrity for the task. The policies have been well thought-out and the solutions appear to be capable of implementation, but the ,people factor' will also be critical to success. The present scenario is guardedly encouraging; the devolution programme will probably meet sufficient of its objectives to justify the changes, given continuing donor support, and performance will improve as local authorities gain experience and self-confidence. For its part, Government will need to resist the temptation to over-supervise, and intervene only sparingly. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Devolution and Innovation: The Adoption of State Environmental Policy Innovations by Administrative AgenciesPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 2 2004Alka Sapat Do states act as laboratories for reform? Are state administrative agencies likely to adopt policy innovations? This study analyzes the adoption of environmental policy innovations by state administrative agencies in the area of hazardous waste regulation. Four explanations are developed to explain the factors that affect innovation adoption: the severity of the problem, the importance of institutional factors, the role played by interest groups, and contextual factors. Institutional factors, such as state wealth and administrative professionalism, are important determinants of innovation adoption. State agencies are also likely to adopt innovations to deal with problems created by hazardous waste contamination. In addition, state environmental managers are not directly influenced by interest groups, and the inclusion of all stakeholders is likely to lead to greater support for new policy initiatives. Implications for practitioners are drawn based on the study's findings. [source] Discipline and Devolution: Constructions of Poverty, Race, and Criminality in the Politics of Rural Prison DevelopmentANTIPODE, Issue 3 2009Anne Bonds Abstract:, The soaring expansion of the US prison population is transforming the geographies of both urban and rural landscapes. As the trend in mass incarceration persists, depressed rural spaces are increasingly associated with rising prison development and the increasing criminalization of rural communities of disadvantage. Drawing on in-depth archival and interview research in rural communities in the Northwestern states of Idaho and Montana, this paper explores how cultural productions of poverty and exclusion intersect with rural prison development. I examine how representations of poverty and criminality are entangled with processes of economic restructuring and the localization of economic development and social welfare. I explore the ways in which the rural prison geography of the Northwest is linked to the material and discursive construction of those in poverty and how these narratives are produced through local relations of race, ethnicity, and class. I suggest that the mobilization of these constructions legitimates rural prison expansion, increasingly punitive social and criminal justice policies, and the retrenchment of racialized and classed inequality. Further, I argue that these discursive imaginations of the poor work to obscure the central dynamics producing poverty under the neoliberal restructuring of rural economies and governance. [source] Regionalisation, Devolution and the Trade Union MovementANTIPODE, Issue 5 2002Andy Pike First page of article [source] Welfarism Versus ,Free Enterprise': Considerations Of Power And Justice In The Philippine Healthcare SystemBIOETHICS, Issue 5-6 2003Peter A. Sy ABSTRACT The just distribution of benefits and burdens of healthcare, at least in the contemporary Philippine context, is an issue that gravitates towards two opposing doctrines of welfarism and ,free enterprise.' Supported largely by popular opinion, welfarism maintains that social welfare and healthcare are primarily the responsibility of the government. Free enterprise (FE) doctrine, on the other hand, maintains that social welfare is basically a market function and that healthcare should be a private industry that operates under competitive conditions with minimal government control. I will examine the ethical implications of these two doctrines as they inform healthcare programmes by business and government, namely: (a) the Devolution of Health Services and (b) the Philippine Health Maintenance Organization (HMO). I will argue that these doctrines and the health programmes they inform are deficient in following respects: (1) equitable access to healthcare, (2) individual needs for premium healthcare, (3) optimal utilisation of health resources, and (4) the equitable assignment of burdens that healthcare entails. These respects, as considerations of justice, are consistent with an operational definition of ,power' proposed here as ,access to and control of resources.' [source] Devolution and Disability Equality Legislation: The Implementation of Part 4 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 in England and ScotlandBRITISH JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION, Issue 2 2003Sheila Riddell Part 4 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (as amended) came into force in September 2002. The Act covers Great Britain but, in relation to schools, is implemented through different special educational needs legislation in England and Scotland. This article by Sheila Riddell, Professor of Social Policy (Disability Studies) at Glasgow University and Director of the Strathclyde Centre for Disability Research, explores the key differences in these legal frameworks, and discusses their implications for delivering consistent anti-discrimination policies north and south of the border. Professor Riddell argues that there is a need for close monitoring of the implementation of Part 4 of the DDA in English and Scottish schools. If major differences in implementation of the legislation emerge over time, there may be a need to consider the case for devolving responsibility for equal opportunities to the Holyrood Parliament or amending national education legislation to make it more consistent. This article will be of interest to anyone concerned with the implementation of Part 4 of the Disability Discrimination Act in England and Scotland. [source] Partitioned Nature, Privileged Knowledge: Community-based Conservation in TanzaniaDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 5 2003Mara Goldman Community Based Conservation (CBC) has become the catch,all solution to the social and ecological problems plaguing traditional top,down, protectionist conservation approaches. CBC has been particularly popular throughout Africa as a way to gain local support for wildlife conservation measures that have previously excluded local people and their development needs. This article shows that, despite the rhetoric of devolution and participation associated with new CBC models, conservation planning in Tanzania remains a top,down endeavour, with communities and their specialized socio,ecological knowledge delegated to the margins. In addition to the difficulties associated with the transfer of power from state to community hands, CBC also poses complex challenges to the culture or institution of conservation. Using the example of the Tarangire,Manyara ecosystem, the author shows how local knowledge and the complexities of ecological processes challenge the conventional zone,based conservation models, and argues that the insights of local Maasai knowledge claims could better reflect the ecological and social goals of the new CBC rhetoric. [source] State Sciences and Development Histories: Encoding Local Forestry Knowledge in BengalDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 1 2000K. Sivaramakrishnan Informed by debates on development discourse, local knowledge, and the history of colonial conservation, this article argues for a careful historical investigation of the manner in which scientific managerial knowledge emerges in the field of forestry. It makes its case by focusing on the specific period in the history of Bengal (1893,1937) when scientific forestry was formalized and institutionalized. The processes and conflicts through which local knowledge gets encoded as scientific canon have to be understood to generate effective managerial devolution in participatory projects. This requires an engagement with public understandings of science as practice that arises from a dynamic critique of static, and undifferentiated, notions of development discourse or local knowledge. [source] When Popular Participation Won't Improve Service Provision: Primary Health Care in UgandaDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 2 2005Frederick Golooba-Mutebi Advocates of participatory approaches to service delivery see devolution as key to empowering people to take charge of their own affairs. Participation is portrayed as guaranteeing the delivery of services that are in line with user preferences. It is assumed that people are keen to participate in public affairs, that they possess the capacity to do so, and that all they need is opportunities. Using evidence from ethnographic research in Uganda, this article questions these views. It shows that, to succeed in the long term, devolution and participation must take place in the context of a strong state, able to ensure consistent regulation, and a well-informed public backed up by a participatory political culture. [source] ALIGNING INCENTIVES AND MOTIVATIONS IN HEALTH CARE: THE CASE OF EARNED AUTONOMYFINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2007Russell Mannion Delegating greater authority and decision making power to front line organisations, including devolution of control through the system of ,Earned Autonomy' is a key component of the UK Government's modernisation agenda for the public services. The principle of Earned Autonomy is that the highest performing organisations are subject to less central control and allowed increased operating freedoms. This paper explores the implementation of Earned Autonomy in the English NHS and addresses the question of whether the incentives implicit within Earned Autonomy are both sufficiently powered and aligned to the motivations of senior hospital managers to secure the desired improvements in organisational performance. [source] Fiscal Decentralisation and Empowerment: Evolving Concepts and Alternative Measures,FISCAL STUDIES, Issue 4 2008Jameson Boex H11; H70; H72 Abstract Decentralisation reforms are among the most common and significant public sector reforms, particularly in developing and transitional countries around the world. Despite the importance of the topic to policy practitioners and academic researchers alike and the extensive empirical research on the topic, there is consensus in the literature that the measures of decentralisation that are currently used are unsatisfactory. In response, we propose an alternative measure of fiscal decentralisation based on the notion that decentralisation is more than simply the inverse of centralisation. Following Bahl (2005), we consider fiscal decentralisation as ,the empowerment of people by the [fiscal] empowerment of their local governments'. Accordingly, we develop a measure of fiscal empowerment that allows us to quantify fiscal decentralisation as the gain in empowerment due to devolution and we analyse the proposed measures of empowerment and decentralisation for a cross-section of developing, transitional and industrialised countries. [source] Policy analysis for tropical marine reserves: challenges and directionsFISH AND FISHERIES, Issue 1 2003Murray A Rudd Abstract Marine reserves are considered to be a central tool for marine ecosystem-based management in tropical inshore fisheries. The arguments supporting marine reserves are often based on both the nonmarket values of ecological amenities marine reserves provide and the pragmatic cost-saving advantages relating to reserve monitoring and enforcement. Marine reserves are, however, only one of a suite of possible policy options that might be used to achieve conservation and fisheries management objectives, and have rarely been the focus of rigorous policy analyses that consider a full range of economic costs and benefits, including the transaction costs of management. If credible analyses are not undertaken, there is a danger that current enthusiasm for marine reserves may wane as economic performance fails to meet presumed potential. Fully accounting for the value of ecological services flowing from marine reserves requires consideration of increased size and abundance of focal species within reserve boundaries, emigration of target species from reserves to adjacent fishing grounds, changes in ecological resilience, and behavioural responses of fishers to spatially explicit closures. Expanding policy assessments beyond standard cost,benefit analysis (CBA) also requires considering the impact of social capital on the costs of managing fisheries. In the short term, the amount of social capital that communities possess and the capacity of the state to support the rights of individuals and communities will affect the relative efficiency of marine reserves. Reserves may be the most efficient policy option when both community and state capacity is high, but may not be when one and/or the other is weak. In the longer term, the level of social capital that a society possesses and the level of uncertainty in ecological and social systems will also impact the appropriate level of devolution or decentralization of fisheries governance. Determining the proper balance of the state and the community in tropical fisheries governance will require broad comparative studies of marine reserves and alternative policy tools. [source] Regional Devolution and Regional Economic Success: Myths and Illusions about PowerGEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2006Ray Hudson Abstract The proposition that regional devolution in and of itself will lead to economic success has become deeply embedded in beliefs and policy discourses about the determinants of regional prosperity, and in turn has led to political demands for such devolution. In this paper I seek critically to examine such claims, using the case of the north-east of England as the setting for this examination. The paper begins with some introductory comments on concepts of power, regions, the reorganization of the state and of multi-level governance, and governmentality, which help in understanding the issues surrounding regional devolution. I then examine the ways in which north-east England was politically and socially constructed as a particular type of region, with specific problems, in the 1930s , a move that has had lasting significance up until the present day. Moving on some six decades, I then examine contemporary claims about the relationship between regional devolution and regional economic success, which find fertile ground in the north-east precisely due to its long history of representation as a region with a unified regional interest. I then reflect on the processes of regional planning, regional strategies and regional devolution, and their relationship to regional economic regeneration. A brief conclusion follows, emphasizing that questions remain about the efficacy of the new governmentality and about who would be its main beneficiaries in the region. The extent to which devolution would actually involve transferring power to the region and the capacity of networked forms of power within the region to counter the structural power of capital and shape central state policies remains unclear. [source] The Illusion of Equity: An Examination of Community Based Natural Resource Management and Inequality in AfricaGEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 9 2010Cerian Gibbes This article examines the dual goals of community based natural resource management (CBNRM) as a way to protect the environment (specifically wildlife) and enhance the socio-economic equity of communities. As described in the literature, CBNRM should integrate ecological sustainability, economic efficiency and social equity (Pagdee et al. 2006). Although occasionally successful at the first two ideal objectives, the enhancement of social equity is often wanting due to a priori assumptions about communities and resource management devolution. This article based largely on published literature, and addresses the constraints and opportunities for successful CBNRM in Africa, largely focusing on southern Africa as that part of the world has been one of the early testing grounds for these environmental management ideas. [source] Centralization and Decentralization in Administration and Politics: Assessing Territorial Dimensions of Authority and PowerGOVERNANCE, Issue 1 2001Paul D. Hutchcroft Throughout the world, diverse countries are implementing programs of decentralization as a means of promoting both democratic and developmental objectives. Unfortunately, however, scholarship has yet to offer a comprehensive framework within which to assess and reform central-local relations. This article seeks to overcome the "division of labor" that has long separated analyses of administrative and political structures, and to provide stronger conceptual vocabulary for describing and analyzing the complexities of centralization and decentralization in both administration and politics. After developing two distinct continua of administrative and political centralization/decentralization, the paper then combines them in a single matrix able to highlight the wide range of strategies and outcomes that emerge from the complex interplay of the two spheres. Depending on where a country lies within the matrix, it is argued, strategies of decentralization may do more harm than good. Strategies of devolution are especially problematic in settings with strong local bosses, and should never be attempted without careful analysis of the preexisting character of central-local ties. [source] Primary care in the UK: understanding the dynamics of devolutionHEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, Issue 5 2001Mark Exworthy Abstract The United Kingdom is ostensibly one country and yet public policy often varies between its constituent territories , England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Health policy illustrates the dilemmas inherent in an apparently unitary system that permits scope for territorial variation. Administrative devolution has now been accompanied by political devolution but their interaction has yet to produce policy outcomes. This paper describes recent health policy reform with regard to primary care in terms of the tension inherent in current policy between notions of a ,one nation NHS' and the territorial diversity wrought by devolution. The paper provides a framework for understanding the emergent outcomes by exploring various concepts. In particular, the existing character of territorial policy networks, the properties of policies in devolved territories and intergovernmental relations are considered from various disciplines to examine whether greater diversity or uniformity will result from the dual reform process. Whilst this evaluation can, at this stage, only be preliminary, the paper provides a framework to appraise the emerging impact of devolution upon primary care in the UK. [source] Targets and Tools in Dutch Access PoliciesHIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2005Frans Kaiser In 2004 the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science set a concrete target: by 2010, close to 50% of the age cohort should participate in higher education, following the targets set in the UK and Sweden. However clear the target is set, the ways to achieve it are far less specified. In the article a number of possible instruments to achieve the target are discussed and their relevance in the Dutch context is analysed. It is concluded that there are a limited number of policy instruments available. However, given the devolution of access policy to the higher education institutions and the influence of broader societal trends on participation our expectations on what government can do to reach its target need to be modest. [source] Modernising pay in the UK public services: trends and implicationsHUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, Issue 3 2010Stephen J. Perkins The emerging character of the UK government's public sector pay reforms during the second and third (New) Labour terms of office is reviewed and contextualised. Three settings are examined where pay reform has been actively employed , with the accent on harmonisation, simplification and devolution of practice, with the express intention of restoring public service workforce morale, while improving services to clients , namely, local government, the National Health Service and the Higher Education sector. The evidence is interpreted as illustrating undoubted change, but also significant areas where progress has been less than intended, measured against the government's original programme goals. Equal pay considerations appear to have dominated all three projects reviewed: the failure to date of public sector managements to capitalise on opportunities the new pay architecture affords them to change local working practices may be attributed to a combination of factors discussed in the article. These have given rise to tensions as efforts have been pursued to transplant private sector pay techniques, somewhat hastily in some cases, without due consideration of the institutional context within which public services and proximal institutions function. [source] Testing Community Empowerment Strategies in Zimbabwe: Examples from Nutrition Supplementation, and Water Supply and Sanitation ProgrammesIDS BULLETIN, Issue 1 2000Mungai Lenneiye Summary This article provides a brief overview and examples of how communities were involved in feeding programmes during years of drought in Zimbabwe, and in the management of rural water supply and sanitation programmes throughout the 1980s. The balance between political and technical demands in the implementation of these programmes indicates that they started off with community interests at the centre, but gradually gave way to the needs of the bureaucracy (both political and administrative). The main lessons to be learnt from these programmes is that information on entitlements and obligations (on the part of communities and external agencies) is a prerequisite for successful community development projects. Furthermore, the extent of accountability to communities is directly proportional to progress made towards the devolution of power to democratic development structures, be they directly or indirectly elected. [source] New directions: a South Asian perspectiveINTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 167 2001Gamini Lakshman Peiris The central challenge facing countries of the developing world such as Sri Lanka is how to reconcile ethnic and cultural diversity with the concept of mature and cohesive nationhood. This is especially so where a federation is created not by the traditional pattern of independent entities coming together, but by devolution from a unitary state to one involving power sharing. In such situations there arealways fears that federalism is a precursor of dismemberment or disintegration. What is needed is to reconcile competing objectives for a strong and effective centre and for recognition of cultural and ethnic diversity. This may require hybrid or quasi-federal structures that do not fit neatly into unitary or federal categories. In attempting to achieve this reconciliation practicalities may require asymmetrical devolution, but this in turn may provoke emotional resistance to special or disparate treatment of particular minorities. Nor is devolution by itself sufficient. To be viable there must be suitable mechanisms to resolve intergovernmental disputes. Particularly important if confrontation and polarisation are to be minimised isemphasis upon compromise and proportionality and a public respect for pluralism, secularism, and representative democracy. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||