POLITICAL-TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM: INSTITUTIONAL INNOVATIONS AND MIMETIC ISOMORPHISM
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17072/2218-1067-2024-1-29-40Keywords:
political-territorial heterogeneity; institutional isomorphism; institutional reforms; devolution; United Kingdom; Northern Ireland; Scotland; WalesAbstract
The political-territorial heterogeneity is regularly managed by the states through institutional reforms of various kinds. Such reforms may be the result of the creation of new institutional arrangements (institutional innovation), but more often they exhibit a certain degree of borrowing from already known institutional practices (institutional borrowing). The research aims to analyze institutional reforms in the United Kingdom aimed at maintaining political-territorial integrity (in relation to the regional autonomies of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) during the modern devolution period (1998-2023). The theory of institutional isomorphism (P. DiMaggio and W. Powell) is used as a methodological framework. The author demonstrates two key institutional mechanisms in the processes of managing political-territorial heterogeneity in the United Kingdom – institutional innovations (primarily in the cases of Scotland and Northern Ireland) and mimetic institutional isomorphism (in the case of Wales and rarely in the case of Northern Ireland). The author concludes by suggesting that referendums and intergovernmental center-regional agreements might be indicators of normative institutional isomorphism.References
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