Territorial Politics, the Central State and Devolution

2021 ◽  
pp. 273-306
Keyword(s):  
Central State ◽  
Territorial Politics

scholarly journals Spatial planning, metropolitan governance and territorial politics in Europe: Dublin as a case of metro-phobia?

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 365-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niamh Moore-Cherry ◽  
John Tomaney
Keyword(s):  
National Level ◽  
Metropolitan Governance ◽  
Governance Reform ◽  
Central State ◽  
Capital Cities ◽  
Metropolitan Regions ◽  
Government Power ◽  
Territorial Politics ◽  
National Champions ◽  
The City

The growing concentration of production and population in capital cities in Europe is accompanied by metropolitan governance reform with two policy objectives in mind. Firstly, capital cities are promoted as ‘national champions’ in the context of global territorial competition. Secondly, metropolitan regions are characterised by recurrent crises of ‘governability’ as economic, social, environmental and infrastructural interdependencies escape existing jurisdictional scales. However, this process is highly uneven, reflecting the ways in which cities are embedded in their national contexts. Drawing from the literature on varieties of capitalism, and in particular O’Riain’s perspective on the Irish case, we suggest that in an era when cities are claimed to be acting as ‘national champions’, territorial politics need to be more strongly foregrounded in these discussions. Through an in-depth qualitative case-study of Dublin (Ireland), we argue that while government power may be strongly centralised in the city of Dublin, the spatial entity of Dublin is relatively powerless. Despite a number of recommendations since the 1970s, there has been little will or action to meaningfully devolve power to the city-regional level in any way, contrary to comparative European experiences. The paper illustrates how a central state stranglehold over the Dublin metropolitan area is hampering the efficient governance and sustainable development of the city. These governance constraints at the sub-national level with significant planning implications indicate a reluctance to engage with the metropolitan as a particular territorial scale in Ireland – and a profound fixity in the architecture of the state. We term this metro-phobia.

Territorial Politics, the Central State and Devolution

2021 ◽  
pp. 273-306
Author(s):  
Jonathan Bradbury
Keyword(s):  
Policy Process ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Intergovernmental Relations ◽  
The State ◽  
Central State ◽  
Political Resources ◽  
Territorial Management ◽  
Territorial Politics ◽  
Law Making

This chapter addresses UK central government and devolution over the whole period, focusing on how the centre articulated Britishness and approached the issues of law making and parliament, intergovernmental relations, and territorial finance in the light of devolution. The chapter places a principal focus on how the Blair governments developed the central state in the light of devolution. It explores the role of territorial pressures and constraints in thinking about adaptation at the centre; the availability of political resources in shaping approaches to reform; choices over the use of those resources; and the policy process adopted in making those choices. In so doing the chapter considers to what extent the evidence supports the proposition that following Bulpitt, the Blair governments sought to fashion an approach also to the development of the central state in the light of devolution that maintained a centre autonomy model of centre–periphery relations. The implication is that they sought this goal both to assist the successful embedding of devolution in ways amenable to the state as a whole, as well as maintaining effective UK government across all its priorities, not simply territorial management. The chapter draws on the published work of Trench, which was based on extensive interviews in Whitehall in the early 2000s, and reconsiders it within the book's framework of analysis.

scholarly journals Central State Power and its Limits in Bulpitt's Territory and Power

2010 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter John
Keyword(s):  
State Power ◽  
Local Administration ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Central State ◽  
Comparative Framework ◽  
Territorial Management ◽  
Territorial Politics ◽  
The Uk

AbstractThis article assesses Bulpitt's treatment of the centre or central state. It begins by reviewing Bulpitt's argument that the UK centre elite developed a detached style of territorial management and recognized the limits to the state's power. The argument is that the elite at the centre sought to avoid the costs of intervention in the periphery so it could retain its autonomy over decisions affecting the economy and international affairs. The article then assesses Bulpitt's claims against extant evidence from the study of UK politics. It concludes that, in spite of Bulpitt's failure to appreciate the interest of the centre in the detail of local administration, the account holds up surprisingly well and could be adopted as a comparative framework for analysing how central elites seek to keep their grip on power by managing territorial politics successfully.

THE ILLUMINATING OF THE EDUCATION ISSUES OF SURKHAN OASIS IN ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTS(1920-1930 YEARS)

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 40-45
Author(s):  
Oybek Isaev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
School System ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Traditional Schools ◽  
State Archive ◽  
Central State ◽  
Archival Documents

The materials which were stated in this article is about 1920-1930 and it discusses processes ofeducational system in Surkhan valley on the basis of data from Uzbek Republic Central State Archive, as well as regional Archive of Surkhandarya province, and Archives of districts. The article reveals clear understanding about how educational affairs went on in the valley, constructions of schools, and liquidation of old traditional schools and establishment of the novelsoviet educational school system.

Political Settlements, Natural Resource Extraction, and Inclusion in Bolivia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Bebbington ◽  
Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai ◽  
Denise Humphreys Bebbington ◽  
Marja Hinfelaar ◽  
Cynthia A. Sanborn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resource ◽  
Central State ◽  
Dominant Party ◽  
Resource Governance ◽  
Natural Resource Extraction ◽  
Natural Resource Governance ◽  
Holding Power ◽  
Resource Nationalism ◽  
Economic Elite ◽  
Competing Interest

Bolivia’s natural resources have served as a ‘mechanism of trade’ mobilized by competing interest groups to build coalitions, create political pacts, and negotiate political settlements in which dominant actors attempt to win over those resistant to a particular vision of development and/or governance. These pacts and settlements are revisited constantly, reflecting the weak and fragmented power of the central state and of the elite and persistent tensions between national and subnational elites. Ideas about, and modes of, natural resource governance have been central to periods of instability and stability, and to significant periods of political rupture. The period since 2006 has been characterized by a stable settlement involving an alliance between the presidency, his dominant party, and national social movements. This settlement is sustained through bargains with parts of the economic elite and subnational actors with holding power, as well as through ideas of resource nationalism and state-led developmentalism.

scholarly journals Natural Constraints to Cultural Relativism Example: Ricci’s Pacific-Centered World Maps

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-397
Author(s):  
Elmar Holenstein
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Canary Islands ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
Central State ◽  
The West ◽  
Gestalt Principles ◽  
Matteo Ricci ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Made In

AbstractNot everything that is logically possible and technically feasible is also natural, for example, placing China in the exact center of a world map. Such a map would not correspond to the laws of perception.Matteo Ricci, who was the first to create Chinese world maps on which the Americas were depicted, had to choose between two ideals, between a world map that obeys the gestalt principles of perception and a world map with the “Central State” China in its center. The first ideal mattered more to him than the second, although he took the latter into account as well. The result was a Pacific-centered map.Since we live on a sphere, what we perceive to be in the East and in the West depends on our location. It is therefore natural that in East Asia, world maps show America in the East and not – as in Europe – in the West. This was the argument underlying Ricci’s creation of Pacific-centered maps, and not the intention of depicting China as close to the center of the map as possible.It is only in East Asia that Ricci was the first to create Pacific-centered maps. World maps with the Pacific in the midfield were made in Europe before Ricci, motivated by the traditional unidirectional numbering of the meridians (0°–360°) from West to East starting with the Atlantic Insulae Fortunatae (Canary Islands).

scholarly journals Inequalities, territorial politics, nationalism

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-330
Author(s):  
Donatella della Porta ◽  
Michael Keating ◽  
Mario Pianta
Keyword(s):  
Territorial Politics

scholarly journals Restructuring the State: Policy Transition of Construction Land Supply in Urban and Rural China

Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Renhao Yang ◽  
Qingyuan Yang
Keyword(s):  
Rural China ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
The State ◽  
Market Forces ◽  
Central State ◽  
Land Supply ◽  
Reform Era ◽  
Construction Land ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
State Functions

Encountering the articulation of the strongness of local authorities and market forces in China’s development, attention has been paid to the changing central state which recentralised the regulation capability of localities which has more discretional power on resources utilisation, land for example, in the post-reform era. Yet it is still not clear-cut what drives the state rescaling in terms of land governance and by what ways. After dissecting the evolving policies and practices of construction land supply in China with the focus on the roles of state, we draw two main conclusions. First, the policy trajectory of construction land supply entails a complicated reconfiguration of state functions, which is driven by three interwoven relations: land–capital relation, peasant–state relation and rural–urban relation. Second, state rescaling in terms of the governance of construction land provision works via four important approaches: limited decentralism, horizontal integralism, local experimentalism and political mobilisationism. By reviewing the institutional arrangements of construction land provision and the state rescaling process behind them, this article offers a nuanced perspective to the state (re)building that goes beyond the simplified (vertical or horizontal) transition of state functions.

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