Devolution and democratic engagement in England

Abstract

Devolution is argued to enhance decision-making through allowing for representative place-based policy making by engaged local citizens. Meanwhile, voter participation in local elections in England is approximately one-third of the electorate, divided along demographic lines, raising questions over the democratic legitimacy of local policymaking. Leveraging a restricted dataset from The Elections Centre, my study provides the first detailed investigation into this relationship. Focusing on the six English devolved areas granted expanded powers in 2017, I employ a difference-in-differences approach on a panel of single-tier authorities spanning 2004–2022. I find that despite the transfer of greater local powers, devolution does not lead to any overall increase in democratic engagement, although these effects vary by devolved area. Also, there is no relationship between existing voting behaviour and the effect of devolution, suggesting cycles of political exclusion persist. My findings evidence a ‘geography of disengagement’, and the inefficacy of increased devolved powers in influencing these patterns, contesting the importance of representative policymaking under England's devolution framework, and place-based policies more generally, beyond a political rhetorical device.