the.com/devolution
Handing power down from the center, hoping nobody notices it's still watching.
means The transfer of power or authority from a central government to regional or local bodies — or more loosely, any process of handing things down or back.
from Built from the Latin 'de-' (down, away) plus 'volvere' (to roll) — the same root that gives us 'revolve' and 'evolve.' So devolution is literally a 'rolling down' or 'unrolling' of power. It entered English through older ideas of transferring property or legal rights, and only later picked up its modern political sense of central governments ceding authority to regions — a rolling-downhill that, politically speaking, rarely rolls very far.
- origin
- latin devolvere, to roll down
- uk example
- scotland and wales got their own parliaments
- not independence
- london keeps the master key
- biology joke
- darwin never used the word, pop culture did