Revisiting the ‘Missing Middle’ in English Sub-National Governance
Revisiting the ‘Missing Middle’ in English Sub-National Governance
复制标题
重温英国地方治理中的“缺失的中间”
DOI：
10.1080/02690942.2010.525999
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发表时间：
2010
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
P. Greenhalgh
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
K. Shaw;P. Greenhalgh
鉴于新联合政府提议将地方治理从区域层面“重新调整”，现在正是重新考虑城市或次区域经济发展方式的优势和劣势，并再次寻找英国治理中“缺失的中间地带”的好时机。在此背景下，本文首先评估了城市或次区域作为经济治理层级的情况，然后研究了英格兰东北部现有城市地区的经验教训。它认为，虽然当代发展地方企业伙伴关系（LEP）的计划可以在前任工党政府领导下的新兴城市区域发展的背景下得到有效考虑，但仍然存在一些重要的挑战，特别是在确保负责任的治理结构、一系列适当的职能、充足的资金以及跨各种次区域背景的全面覆盖方面。虽然新政府的提议为发展次区域机构创造了必要的“空间”，并为市县 LEP 提供了真正的机会，但次区域挑战的规模不应被低估，特别是考虑到经济衰退和公共部门大幅削减的背景。
In the light of the new Coalition Government's proposed ‘rescaling’ of sub-national governance away from the regional level, it is an opportune time to re-consider the strength and weaknesses of the city or sub-regional approach to economic development and to search, once more, for the ‘missing middle’ in English Governance. In this context, the article initially assesses the case for city or sub regions as tiers of economic governance, before examining the lessons to be learnt from the experiences of the existing city regions in the North East of England. It argues that while contemporary plans to develop Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) can be usefully considered within the context of the emerging city regional developments under the previous Labour Governments, a number of important challenges remain, particularly in relation to ensuring accountable structures of governance, a range of appropriate functions, adequate funding, and comprehensive coverage across a variety of sub-regional contexts. While the proposals of the new Government create the necessary ‘space’ to develop sub-regional bodies and offer genuine opportunities for both city and county LEPs, the scale of the sub-regional challenge should not be underestimated, particularly given the context of economic recession and major reductions in the public sector.