This article addresses contemporary state theory by examining the role of state interests and the constraints upon state autonomy in recent central-metropolitan relations in Britain. The abolition of the Greater London Council and six Metropolitan County Councils in Britain in 1986 is analyzed by reference to liberal, Marxist, and statist propositions about state autonomy and state interests. Three versions of the statist perspective are delineated, and it is argued that an understanding of central state interests is necessary for a complete account of the 1986 abolition.
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