Devolution

Devolution is a process in which power and responsibility is taken away from a larger governing body, like a country, and is given to smaller governing bodies, like a state or municipality. It's a bit like the opposite of evolution. Imagine that all the states in the US were part of one big country - that would be the larger governing body. Devolution is the process of taking away the power and responsibility held by that big country and giving it to the individual states instead. This makes the states more powerful, because they now have more control over their own affairs.