Devolution of Government - A Good Idea?

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The part of the UK where I live is holding a referendum in September to decide if we want a "Regional Assembly". This follows logically on from the creation of the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh & Northern Irish Assemblies.

The three English regions which will be voting are the North East, North West and Yorkshire & Humber. This is basically the entire North of England. The other English regions apparently expressed less desire to be allowed the choice and will be looked at again at a later date.

Should these English Regional Assemblies come into existence, they will be resonsible for matters of:

economic development
skills and employment
housing
culture, tourism and sport
transport
land use and regional planning
environmental protection, biodiversity and waste
public health
fire and rescue service

Source

My specific point here is to find out what opinions (if any!) the British members of A2K have about these Regional Assemblies, and indeed the wider picture of devolution in the UK:

- Has it worked in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland?
- Will it work for the regions of England?
- Is it all a waste of taxpayers money by needlessly employing more Government paper-pushers?
- Or will it provide the regions concerned with better governance?

On a wider level, I am aware that many other countries have had regional government (be it States, Provinces, Duchies or whatever) for a long time, and would also like to hear from anyone else with views on such matters in their own country.

The legislative powers of such entities obviously varies enormously. I can't imagine for example that Tony Blair will allow Yorkshire & Humber to bring back the death penalty for murder! :wink:

Any views on regional versus central government from anywhere in the world are welcome. Thanks.

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Here in the states we have Federal, state, county and municiple governments. County level is one that varies greatly from one area to the next. Here in MA they don't do much more than manage the court system (i.e. building maintenace, etc..) In other areas the County government is a major controlling force.

Each level gets their authorities and responsibilites laid out so there usually isn't to much overlap but it does happen to some extent.

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Have there ever been public votes to decide which parts of the population want what style of government, or is it derived from the differing histories of the areas in question and therefore quite varied as well?

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For Germany, this is done by parliament(s) - parliaments are here qua constitution represantatives of the population:

Quote:

Article 38
(1) Members of the German Bundestag shall be elected in general, direct, free, equal, and secret elections. They shall be representatives of the whole people, not bound by orders or instructions, and responsible only to their conscience.

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Walter - So Germany has both a 'national' parliament (where Chancellor Schroeder is in charge?) and 'regional' parliaments? Which matters are run at a local level, and which at a national level?

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We have state parliaments (and "complete governments in states), parliaments in counties aand towns.

Besides - and that differs from state to state - we have parliaments/councils in regions, which deal with e.g. ecology, urban/rural planning, traffic, social institutions ... .

Quite different to the UK - the situation in France seems to be the most closest in my opinion: département = county, régions = English region.

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Before I start to summarise ...:

Quote:

Regional and local government
Certain functions (e.g., education and law enforcement) are expressly the responsibility of the states, yet there is an attempt to maintain a degree of uniformity among the 16 states through joint consultative bodies. The state governments are generally parallel in structure to that of the Bund but need not be. In 13 states the head of government has a cabinet and ministers; each of these states also has its own parliamentary body. In the city-states of Hamburg, Bremen, and Berlin, the mayor serves simultaneously as the head of the city government and the state government. In the city-states the municipal senates serve also as provincial parliaments, and the municipal offices assume the nature of provincial ministries.

The administrative subdivisions of the states (exclusive of the city-states and the Saarland) are the Regierungsbezirke (administrative districts). Below these are the divisions known as Kreise (counties). Larger communities enjoy the status of what in the United Kingdom was formerly the county borough. The counties themselves are further subdivided into the Gemeinden (roughly "communities" or "parishes"), which through long German tradition have achieved considerable autonomy and responsibility in the administration of schools, hospitals, housing and construction, social welfare, public services and utilities, and cultural amenities.

source: Britannica

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Has the current system been in place for a long time, Walter? I guess that there was a lot of change to the political structures after WW2. Does the system work for you, or would you change it - more or less central?

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Well, this was in place -rozghly- since 1871, nearly identical since the Weimar republic.

Cjanges are now in my state (Northrhine-Westphalia, but similar in other states) in discussion to create between the county level and state level 'regions' with more/different self-governance (here: especially the Ruhrdistrict, which belongs administrative to three different "gouvernment adminstrative districts" and the is divided between Westphalia and the Rhineland).

I've mixed feelings, since I live both in the county as well as in the district border region - we are always, in any system inferior to others.

However, the less central the better!

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Quote:

Two regional assembly votes postponed
Thursday, 22 Jul 2004 13:03

Prescott has championed regional assemblies

The Government has announced that it is to abandon plans to hold votes on regional assemblies in Yorkshire and Humber and the North West in the autumn.

The ballot in the third region, the North East, will go ahead as planned on 4th November.

Lord Rooker made the formal announcement in a debate in the House of Lords this morning.

He cited concerns about the all-postal ballots in these regions in June and said that Ministers would wait for August's report into the pilots by the Electoral Commission.

The Government had previously rejected rumours that the elections would be postponed.

The Shadow Minister for the regions, Bernard Jenkin said the announcement was a "deeply embarrassing retreat."

"It is little more than a cynical ploy to spare the Government's humiliation in regions, where there is no public demand for another pointless layer of bureaucracy which would only take power even further away from local communities. Mr Prescott's decision to announce the postponement on the last day before the summer holidays is a transparent attempt to bury bad news."

Speaking before the official announcement, Liberal Democrat spokesman Edward Davey said: "Yesterday, Labour announced their plans for active citizenship, to get people more involved in their communities. But today, their plans are exposed as cynical headline chasing.

"They cannot hope to be taken seriously on active citizenship when they're considering the postponement of two regional referendums. Rather than chickening out, Ministers should be offering electors more power."

Source

There's always a next time :wink:

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Thanks for the news, Walter!

I can always rely on the government to spoil things for me!

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Devolution of Government - A Good Idea?

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