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Unravelling the ‘devolution paradox’: Citizen preferences for self‐rule and for shared rule
Author(s) -
SCHAKEL ARJAN H.,
SMITH RODNEY
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
european journal of political research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.267
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1475-6765
pISSN - 0304-4130
DOI - 10.1111/1475-6765.12466
Subject(s) - devolution (biology) , autonomy , home rule , rule of law , preference , intervention (counseling) , state (computer science) , indirect rule , set (abstract data type) , political science , decentralization , public economics , economics , sociology , law , psychology , microeconomics , politics , programming language , algorithm , psychiatry , anthropology , computer science , human evolution
Recent survey research has revealed a ‘devolution paradox’: some citizens who favour stronger regional governments inconsistently desire policy uniformity across regions and state‐wide intervention in policy provision. It is argued and empirically shown that preferences for regional authority can be broken down into preferences for self‐rule – that is, for autonomy for the region – and for shared rule – that is, for collaboration between regional and national governments. Drawing upon the International Constitutional Values Survey, which includes 4,930 respondents from 142 regions in eight countries, it is also shown that preferences for self‐rule and shared rule have different impacts. Preferences for self‐rule translate into a preference for regional reform that strengthens regional autonomy, whereas preferences for shared rule drive preferences for fiscal transfers from richer to poorer regions. These results are important because they can explain why citizens who are in favour of more regional authority may support an apparently ‘paradoxical’ set of policy outcomes.