Unless greater heed is paid to political economy, devolutioncould become a red herring of democratisation

Following the Scottish independence referendum, devolution for England is back of the agenda, with regional devolution being revisited as an idea. But are we wrong to equate devolution with democracy, given that most consequential powers will still be in the hands of Whitehall? Craig Berry argues that the inadequate attention paid to political economy risks leaving us with an under-developed view of the way the economy works, with the possible effect of leading us to misunderstand the potential democratising impact of devolution.