From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdevolutionde‧vo‧lu‧tion /ˌdiːvəˈluːʃən/ noun [uncountable] PGwhen a national government gives power to a group or organization at a lower or more local level —devolutionist adjective —devolutionist noun [countable]
Examples from the Corpus
devolution• One form of horizontal devolution has been a feature of the constitution of the United Kingdom for centuries.• However, devolution is already quite a commonplace activity in many educational establishments around the world.• The history of devolution has been a chequered one in our country, perhaps since the second world war.• Their policies on devolution seemed to be going awry.• Cronkite expressed surprise at the devolution of TV news into little more than soundbites.• No doubt that was one reason for the deep-rooted Labour hostility to devolution, and there were other reasons.• The latter were given a choice between fast-and slow-track devolution.• The regimes under which nationalised industries function are by no means the only examples of vertical devolution under the United Kingdom constitution at present.• This is what I would also like to see happen throughout Great Britain, with devolution and regional assemblies.From Longman Business Dictionarydevolutionde‧vo‧lu‧tion /ˌdiːvəˈluːʃən/ noun [uncountable] when a national government or a large organization gives some or all of its power to a smaller group or an organization at a more local levelthe devolution of political power 