Power, (De)Politicisation and Polycentric Governance: Evidence From UK Local Climate Policy

This article extends (de)politicisation theory to elucidate power dynamics in polycentric governance. It develops an original analytical framework to empirically investigate how governmental, societal and discursive (de)politicisation processes emerge within and across decision-making centres. The framework focuses on dimensions of technocracy, pluralism, power and authority and ‘fire alarms’ and political sanctions associated with issue salience. It restores analytical focus on power asymmetries and links these asymmetries to the conditions under which polycentric governance becomes either merely formal (many centres) or substantive (centres with authority, resources, visibility and horizontal linkages). Using a longitudinal case study of climate governance in Birmingham (United Kingdom), we illustrate how waves of politicisation and depoliticisation operate to (re)distribute power with tangible implications for local climate change mitigation and net zero agendas and pathways for delivery. We conclude that delivering ‘net zero’ implies the need for deliberate strategies to strengthen substantive polycentricity in UK domestic climate policy and governance.