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Sub-regional Scale Commitments and Devolution from 2010 to 2020

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The Political Economy of Devolution in Britain from the Postwar Era to Brexit
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Abstract

This chapter discusses the political economy of market-led institutional reform and economic governance from 2010 to 2020, focusing on dilemmas associated with austerity, cluster economics and devolution, and how tensions within these interconnected processes have inflamed national as well as (intra)regional and (intra)local contests.

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Notes

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  2. 2.

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    For a detailed analysis of the types of segregation and inequality caused by urban clustering, see Richard Florida, The New Urban Crisis: How Our Cities are Increasing Inequality, Deepening Segregation, and Failing the Middle Class-and What We Can Do About It (New York: Basic Books, 2017).

  25. 25.

    Jovanocić, “Spatial Location of Firms and Industries,” 31.

  26. 26.

    For a series of nuanced discussions covering industrial strategy, policy and development, see Craig Berry ed., What We Really Mean When We Talk About Industrial Strategy (Manchester Metropolitan University, 2018). An especially relevant analysis comes from the Industrial Strategy Commission’s 2017 Final Report. It argues that strategic economic management across the UK state should be focused on using the state’s powers to coordinate and convene, pool risks, provide public goods and transform economic development with a long-term approach. It also discusses: ensuring adequate investment in infrastructure, decarbonization of the energy economy, developing a sustainable health and social care system, unlocking long-term investment, supporting high-value industries and building export capacities, and enabling growth in all parts of the UK. See the Industrial Strategy Commission, The Final Report of the Industrial Strategy Commission (The University of Manchester and the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute, 2017).

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  32. 32.

    This section does not focus on electoral reform as one of these constitutional issues; however, it is important to note that in 2011, the UK’s first referendum to switch from a single-member plurality model to the alternative vote was held. It did not bring back the results the Liberal Democrats would have hoped for; 42.2% of the population turned out to vote, with 42.2% against change and 32.1% in favour of reform.

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  40. 40.

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  43. 43.

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  44. 44.

    Jessop, “The Organic Crisis of the British State,” 36, 38.

  45. 45.

    Social Mobility Commission, State of the Nation 2017: Social Mobility in Great Britain (2017).

  46. 46.

    John Tomaney and Andy Pike, “Local Industrial Strategy and ‘Left-Behind’ Regions, in What We Really Mean When We Talk About Industrial Strategy, ed. Craig Berry (Manchester Metropolitan University, 2018), 140.

  47. 47.

    Gordon MacLeod and Martin Jones, “Explaining ‘Brexit Capital’: Uneven Development and the Austerity State,” Space and Polity 22, 2 (2018): 120.

  48. 48.

    Social Mobility Commission, State of the Nation 20182019: Social Mobility in Great Britain (2019).

  49. 49.

    Scott Lavery, “The UK’s Growth Model, Business Strategy and Brexit,” in Diverging Capitalisms: Britain, the City of London and Europe, ed. Colin Hay and Daniel Bailey (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), 152.

  50. 50.

    Jamie Morgan, “Brexit: Be Careful What You Wish For?,” in Brexit and the Political Economy of Fragmentation: Things Fall Apart, ed. Jamie Morgan and Heikki Patomäki (New York: Routledge, 2018), 21–24.

  51. 51.

    McHarg and Mitchell, “Brexit and Scotland,” 518.

  52. 52.

    Morgan, “Brexit: Be Careful What You Wish For?,” 5; Boris Kagarlitsky, “Brexit and the Future of the Left,” in Brexit and the Political Economy of Fragmentation: Things Fall Apart, ed. Jamie Morgan and Heikki Patomäki (New York: Routledge, 2018), 7–8.

  53. 53.

    Colin Hay and Daniel Bailey, “Introduction: Brexit and European Capitalism—A Parting of the Waves?,” in Diverging Capitalisms: Britain, the City of London and Europe, ed. Colin Hay and Daniel Bailey (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), 7.

  54. 54.

    Kagarlitsky, “Brexit and the Future of the Left,” 7–8.

  55. 55.

    Owen Worth, “Reviving Hayek’s Dream,” in Brexit and the Political Economy of Fragmentation: Things Fall Apart, ed. Jamie Morgan and Heikki Patomäki (New York: Routledge, 2018), 8.

  56. 56.

    Lavery, “The UK’s Growth Model, Business Strategy and Brexit,” 153.

  57. 57.

    Pažitka and Wójcik, “Cluster Dynamics of Financial Centres in the UK,” 1026–1027.

  58. 58.

    Jan Toporowski, “Brexit and the Discreet Charm of Haute Finance,” in Vote Leave: The Political Economy of Brexit, ed. David Bailey and Leslie Budd (Essex: Agenda Publishing, 2017), 40, 41.

  59. 59.

    Edgar L. W. Morgenroth, “Examining Consequences for Trade: Integration and Disintegration Effects,” in Vote Leave: The Political Economy of Brexit, ed. David Bailey and Leslie Budd (Essex: Agenda Publishing, 2017), 31.

  60. 60.

    Mark Thissen, Frank van Oort, Philip McCann, Rauel Ortega-Argilés, and Trond Husby “The Implications of Brexit for UK and EU Regional Competitiveness,” Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper TI 2019–061/VIII, 17–18, 21–22, 24.

  61. 61.

    Silke Trommer, “Post-Brexit Trade Policy Autonomy as Pyrrhic Victory: Being a Middle Power in a Contested Trade Regime,” in Brexit and the Political Economy of Fragmentation: Things Fall Apart, ed. Jamie Morgan and Heikki Patomäki (New York: Routledge, 2018), 98, 100, 104.

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    Guillaume Sacriste and Antoine Vauchez, “The Euro-ization of the Europe: The Extra-mural Rise of a Government of the Euro and the Redefinition of the ‘European Projects’,” in How to Democratize Europe Stéphanie Hennette, et al. (London: Harvard University Press, 2019), 10.

  63. 63.

    Alexander Schellinger and Philipp Steinberg, “Introduction: The Future of the Eurozone,” in The Future of the Eurozone: How to Keep Europe Together, ed. Alexander Schellinger and Philipp Steinberg (Wetzlar: Transcript Verlag, 2017), 12–13.

  64. 64.

    Christian Beck, “Has the euro Robbed Europe of democracy?,” in The Future of the Eurozone: How to Keep Europe Together, ed. Alexander Schellinger and Philipp Steinberg (Wetzlar: Transcript Verlag, 2017), 22; Henrik Enderlein, “The flaws in the design of the Economic and Monetary Union,” in The Future of the Eurozone: How to Keep Europe Together, ed. Alexander Schellinger and Philipp Steinberg (Wetzlar: Transcript Verlag, 2017), 44.

  65. 65.

    Sacriste and Vauchez, “The Euro-ization of the Europe,” 17–19, 29, 33.

  66. 66.

    Stéphanie Hennette, Thomas Piketty, Guillaume Sacriste and Antoine Vauchez, “Introduction,” in How to Democratize Europe, ed. Stéphanie Hennette et al. (London: Harvard University Press, 2019), 1–3, 63–65.

  67. 67.

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  68. 68.

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  69. 69.

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  72. 72.

    Schneider and Cottineau, “Decentralisation Versus Territorial Inequality,” 2.

  73. 73.

    Shaw and Tewdwr-Jones, “Disorganised Devolution,” 221.

  74. 74.

    Tony Travers, “Funding Combined Authorities and City Regions,” Governing England: Devolution and Funding, British Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences (2018): 64, 66.

  75. 75.

    Claudio De Magalhães, “Business Improvement Districts in England and the (Private?) Governance of Urban Spaces,” Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 32 (2014): 916–917.

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    Lowndes and Gardner, “Local Governance Under the Conservatives,” 358–359, 362–364, 368.

  78. 78.

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  83. 83.

    Martin and Gardiner, “Reviving the ‘Northern Powerhouse,’” 20.

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  85. 85.

    Lee, “Powerhouse of Cards?,” 482.

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Vlahos, N. (2020). Sub-regional Scale Commitments and Devolution from 2010 to 2020. In: The Political Economy of Devolution in Britain from the Postwar Era to Brexit. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48729-4_5

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