After a decade of devolution and amid uncertainties about its effects, it is timely to assess and reflect upon the evidence and enduring meaning of any ‘economic dividend’ of devolution in the UK. Taking an institutionalist and quantitative approach, we seek to discern the nature and extent...

Geographers have often reflected on the impact of their research on policy making. Contributions usually focus on the (ir)relevance of research topics or on the pressures to ‘publish or perish’ that discourage academics from engaging with applied work. In this paper we will focus instead on...

The task force has emerged as a mechanism for coordinating economic development activity in the context of the current New Labour government's emphasis upon including 'stakeholders' in 'joined-up' approaches to 'crosscutting' issues. In this paper I examine the use of task forces to organise...

It has often been argued that Africa in general, and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in particular, is ‘different’ and that it therefore requires ‘exceptional’ solutions to its development problems. In contrast, in this paper we argue that strong internal heterogeneity combined with general...

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Few global phenomena have been as pervasive over the lifetime of <i>Government and Policy </i>as the drive towards decentralisation. The number of countries transferring authority and resources to subnational tiers of government has multiplied over the last twenty-five years. Yet the motives behind...