The Polycentric State: New Spaces of Empowerment and Engagement?

Open Access

Abstract

International audience ; When the history of New Labour comes to be written one of the main challenges will be to explain its Janus-faced attitude to power. By devolving power to the Celtic nations and London, New Labour claims to have introduced a truly significant reform of the territorial structure of governance, allowing the UK to jettison its image as the most centralised state in the European Union.