ABSTRACT
In the United States and Canada, regionalism and regionalisation have become increasingly active political issues. Globalisation and regionalisation appear to go hand in hand, rather than the one eliminating the other. However, the pace and nature of regionalisation are strongly affected by which ideology is dominant within a particular country's government, as the example of England demonstrates. Since 1990, the ideological climate has changed in favour of regionalism, at first incrementally and then more radically under Tony Blair's Labour Government. In 1993, John Major's Conservative Government made its own contribution to the developing English regionalisation by announcing its intention to establish ten Government Offices for the Regions (GORs), later reduced to nine by merging the Merseyside and North-West Offices. There are rising demands for regional government throughout the Western world, stimulated in part by the injustices perpetrated by globalisation as industries are moved from country to country as a result of decisions made in remote international headquarters.
