Formal and Informal Intergovernmental Institutions in the United Kingdom: Cooperation, Conflict and Political Influence

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In recent years many scholars have observed a growing decentralisation of political authority in multilevel polities, which corresponds to an increasing complexity of state structures. This research will make an important contribution to the existing knowledge about shared rule and intergovernmental relations by a qualitative case study approach. In unitary states in particular, intergovernmental relations are largely dealt with ad hoc and tend to fall under the public’s radar. As existing works on intergovernmental relations are clearly skewed towards formal institutions, a major aim of this project is to make the unrecorded visible. Thus, the UK presents a fascinating case for the study of intergovernmental relations in a decentralised unitary state.Since 1999 the formerly highly-centralised United Kingdom has gradually devolved a wide range of legal and fiscal powers to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The devolution settlements, however, have not resolved the debate about autonomy and the UK’s territories but has in practice created an overlap of political jurisdictions, while at the same time, arrangements for joint conflict-resolution, decision-making and policy-implementation have remained unsystematic. Increasing political and functional interdependencies bear great potential for both cooperation and conflict between different levels of government, and raise questions of how territorial power and influence are exercised in the UK.The primary research objective is to analyse and explain institutionalisation, patterns and political influence in the intergovernmental relations of a unitary state. For this purpose, this project is divided into three stages: First, it will analyse the contribution made by established formal and informal institutions and practices to intergovernmental interactions. Second, it will explain patterns of cooperation and conflict against governments’ preference intensity, their political and functional interdependencies, party congruency and their perceived political leverage. Third, it will examine the actual political influence that governments exert on polices and decisions of other governments in the UK.This project will rely on insights from comparative federalism to study a decentralised unitary state through the lens of a global perspective. This will make an important contribution to the theoretical knowledge of power sharing and intergovernmental relations in (primarily, but not exclusively) non-federal multilevel polities.