Multi-level governance and British elites:

All by themselves? Legislative regions and the use of unmediated access to the European level

“…So far, much of the research that argues that regions interact autonomously with European institutions (without the mediation of the central state) has an empirical focus on distributive policies, most notably regional and cohesion policy (cf. Sloat, 2002). However, structural policy is one of the rare distributive policies of the European Union (EU).…”

“…First, distributive policies differ from regulatory policies in that they have an inherent potential for an enabling impact on regions – they provide resources (Moravcsik, 1994: 53). Second, regional policy makes some form of involvement of regions at the implementing level nearly inevitable, so the policy area represents an ideal case for MLG (Sloat, 2002: 50). Third, the policy is based explicitly on a partnership principle and thus requires the mobilization and inclusion of sub-state actors – which is not the case for other EU policies (cf.…”

“…Second, this interaction will to some extent undermine the authority of central governments (cf. Sloat, 2002: 37–38).…”