EL PROYECTO LABORISTA DE DESCENTRALIZACIÓN DEMOCÁTICA DE INGLATERRA

Abstract

This article considers the principal decentralisation policy undertaken duringthe second labour legislature in Great Britain (2001-2005), namely, the proposalthat the region of North East England be given a democratic assembly.The principal policy in Labour’s first legislature was devolution for Scotlandand Wales—ratified through their respective referendums—and for the Londonmetropolitan area. This initial phase in the process of political decentralisationin Great Britain established a totally asymmetric territorial configurationof power, both with respect to the differences existing between thepolitical and institutional margin in the Scottish and Welsh institutions ofself-government, as well as for the fact that England, the territory in which85 % of the island’s population resides, remained outside this process. It wastherefore evident that the articulation of England within the project of devolutionremained to be defined. Thus, the so-called “English question” wasset to for debate. The article aims at providing a perspective on the politicaldebates and governmental proposals and initiatives that address the devolutionof English territory. These initiatives were to conclude with the completefailure of the referendum for the North East, the rejection of the proposalshighlighting the shortcomings of a project in which the Government did notknow how to take advantage of the diffuse demand for self-government inthis traditionally labour region.

Keywords

• territorial decentralization
• historical evolution
• regionalism