Intergovernmental Relations Post-devolution: Active Labour Market Policy in Canada and the United Kingdom 1996-2006

摘要

Devolution of active labour market policy has been pursued by both the Canadian and UK governments during the past decade and, as a result, new intergovernmental relationships have developed. These are compared, focusing in particular on relationships between the Government of Canada and the Government of the province of Alberta, and the UK Government and the Scottish Executive. The analysis concludes that intergovernmental relations and the workability of the intergovernmental relations system in the two countries are fundamentally different. This is due to distinct features in the structure of the state (the constitution, the number of sub-state governments and the asymmetry between them, how finances are shared, and how power is divided), and in the governing structure for active labour market policy (the degree of decentralization, the power of central government to act, the involvement of actors external to government, and the operation of the intergovernmental machinery) in each country. It is also due to the continued presence in the UK, during the period of this research, of two powerful forces of intergovernmental accommodation not found in Canada—a unitary party system and unified civil service.