The United Kingdom is said to have a unitary state with a devolved system of government. This contrasts with a federal system, in which sub-parliaments or state parliaments and assemblies have a clearly defined constitutional right to exist and a right to exercise certain constitutionally guaranteed and defined functions and cannot be unilaterally abolished by Acts of the central parliament.

The government has no plans to establish an English parliament or assembly although several pressure groups are calling for one. One of their main arguments is that MPs (and thus voters) from different parts of the UK have inconsistent powers. Currently an MP from Scotland can vote on legislation which affects only England but MPs from England (or indeed Scotland) cannot vote on matters devolved to the Scottish parliament. Indeed, current Home Secretary John Reid, who is an MP for a Scottish constituency, runs a department which deals primarily with England and Wales. This anomaly is known as the West Lothian question.

The policy of the UK Government in England was to establish elected regional assemblies with no legislative powers. The London Assembly was the first of these, established in 2000, following a referendum in 1998, but further plans were abandoned following rejection of a proposal for an elected assembly in North East England in a referendum in 2004. Unelected regional assemblies remain in place in eight regions of England.

除了位于倫敦的英國上議院外，現(xiàn)在蘇格蘭、威爾斯和北愛爾蘭都擁有自己的議會，這些議會中的部分議院是按照比例代表制選舉產(chǎn)生的。雖然這些二級政府擁有部分立法等方面的權(quán)限，他們的權(quán)力還是無法足夠大到能與英國議會抗衡。三個地方議會之間的權(quán)限大小也各不相同。例如，蘇格蘭議會擁有立法權(quán)，而威爾斯議會政府則只能決定具體如何使用由中央政府分配給威爾斯的預(yù)算。此外，這些議會的存在不受憲法保障，它們的具體權(quán)責(zé)范圍也可由英國議會決定增大或縮小。

因此，英國被認(rèn)為是一個權(quán)力下放的單一制國家。這與聯(lián)邦制國家是不同的。在聯(lián)邦制國家中，地方議會的地位得到憲法承認(rèn)，其權(quán)限范圍和職責(zé)都有明確保障，中央議會無權(quán)隨意剝奪這些權(quán)力。

英國政府目前的政策是繼續(xù)下放中央權(quán)力。但在英格蘭，并沒有建立英格蘭議會和政府的計劃，雖然有一些團(tuán)體力主如此。他們抗?fàn)幍睦碛芍皇莵碜圆煌胤降淖h員的權(quán)利有所不同，蘇格蘭的議員可以對英格蘭事務(wù)的法律投票，但英格蘭的議員卻無權(quán)參與蘇格蘭議會的事務(wù)。比如說，現(xiàn)在的內(nèi)政大臣John Reid，是代表蘇格蘭的議員，就可以領(lǐng)導(dǎo)一個主管英格蘭和威爾士事務(wù)的部門。

英國政府對英格蘭的態(tài)度是允許英格蘭建立民選的政府，但沒有立法權(quán)。建立于2000年的倫敦政府（London Assembly）就是第一個這樣的政府，它也是1998年全民公決的成果。但2004年，東北英格蘭的全民公決否定了建立政府的提議，所以在英格蘭其他各地，目前仍是非民選的政府在管理當(dāng)?shù)氐氖聞?wù)。



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