Between two unions: UK devolution, European integration and Brexit

The UK in recent decades has been the site of radical reform in governing structures. There has been privatization, welfare retrenchment and repeated managerial reform. Redistributive regional policies have been run down. Devolved institutions have been established in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but the territorial governance of England remains unresolved. The nature of the territorial state remains disputed as some see it as a continuing unitary state while others see it as a pluri-national union or emerging federation. Devolution was sustained by membership of the European Union, which provided an external support system, ensured economic union and allowed issues of sovereignty to remain in abeyance. Brexit puts immense centrifugal pressures on the union, but neither fragmentation into separate states nor recomposition as a unitary state are straightforward alternatives. The UK thus presents a stark example of the pressures and conundrums of rescaling, legitimacy and sovereignty facing contemporary European states.