Devolution and power in the United Kingdom is concerned with a paradox - why devolution has enabled different approaches to government and policy-making to develop in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland after 1999, while a close examination of the structure of devolution suggests that the UK government retains control over most key aspects of the UK. Presenting original research, this book is the first comprehensive examination of intergovernmental relations in the devolved UK. It also examines how the UK's practices relate to those practised in other decentralised and federal states, and adopts a resource dependency framework to examine the impact of devolution on the territorial distribution of power in the United Kingdom. It explains the paradox of autonomy and control as a form of 'conditional autonomy', which has been possible because of the benign political circumstances that have accompanied devolution's early years - but which may not survive in rougher conditions.