La territorialisation De l'action publique au Royaume-Uni

Devolution refers to the process of transferring legislative and/or regulatory authority to directly elected regional parliaments or Assemblies. The UK has adopted a model of asymmetrical devolution which has produced variable outcomes. There is full legislative devolution in Scotland, an intermittent power sharing executive in Northern Ireland, 'executive'devolution in Wales, but no directly elected regional institutions in England. Devolution has fundamentally reshaped the constitutional map in important respects and the process is likely to continue. Though a change of government in London would undermine existing patterns of co-ordination, it would probably encourage a more explicit codification of relations between the UK central government and the devolved authorities. Such a codification is necessary given the prospect of diverging constitutional futures.