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Insights from the ESRC Devolution Programme. Presentation to the Commission on Scottish Devolution 30 June 2008 CHARLIE JEFFERY University of Edinburgh. 38 projects at UK universities, a dozen or so in Scotland 170 researchers £5 million Main themes
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Insights from the ESRC Devolution Programme Presentation to the Commission on Scottish Devolution 30 June 2008 CHARLIE JEFFERY University of Edinburgh
38 projects at UK universities, a dozen or so in Scotland 170 researchers £5 million Main themes How (apparently) radical institutional change Interacts with multi-national identities To produce new forms of governance, new policies UK-wide remit: territorial asymmetries and UK-level/statewide implications ESRC Devolution Programme
Ten Key Points • Inherited structures … • Multi-national state with an English core and a single government • … overlaid by new political dynamics … • Multi-governmental state with four distinctive / divergent democratic processes • … produce disequilibrium in the territorial constitution • Unsettled wills outside England … • Calman, National Conversation, All-Wales Convention • and in England
Exploring Disequilibrium • Apparently radical reform, but structural continuities • Devolution = democratisation of differentiated territorial administration outside England pre-1999 • Not much change in England • Five imbalances in consequence: • Piecemeal reform, no big picture • Intergovernmental coordination not fit for purpose • UK govt made lopsided by an unreformed England • Too little thought about purposes of union in new circumstances • Divergent constitutional agendas, e.g.territorial finance post-Barnett
1. Piecemeal Reform • Different departments introduced different reforms for different places, little coordination in 97-9 or since • Long ‘union-state’ tradition of bilateral relationships between centre and non-English nations • Two problems • Mix of devolution outside England and centralisation of England not approached as integrated system of government • Self-contained reforms blind to possibility of spillovers, i.e. reform in one place has unanticipated impacts on other places, e.g. …
Spillovers into England (and back again?) • Scottish devolution addresses a Scottish problem … • … but opens up perception that Scottish devolution unfair to the English • Inequity in representation (West Lothian) • Inequity in resource allocation • Inequity in policy provision • So now: piecemeal solution to this English problem under consideration … • … as Calman, National Conversation, All-Wales Convention also consider other parts of the UK jigsaw puzzle … • … and so on, and on, and on?
2: Intergovernmental Relations • Projecting forward pre-devolution intra-govt relations between UK departments into relations between govts • Ad hoc, collegial among officials, ministers broker agreement if dispute • OK for 99-07, but fit for purpose now officials serve different govts and ministers are from different parties? • No: Ill-attuned to public dispute between govts with different mandates • NB dispute is normal, needs to be channelled, managed more systematically, openly • No: Ill-attuned to making policy for the union as a whole • NB common interests are normal, need to be coordinated more systematically, openly across jurisdictions
3: England • England makes post-devolution UK asymmetrical • Size and economic weight in single market, welfare state, internal security area • (Con)fusion of English with UK govt in Westminster and Whitehall • Decisions by UK govt for England spill over outside England (sometimes wilfully, mainly unconsciously) • Decisions by UK govt for UK driven by English interests, neglectful of effect in devolved settings • Weak grip of devolved govts on the Anglo-UK centre • See intergovernmental relations • UK govt ill-placed to arbitrate spillover issues, because ‘captured’ by English interests • The main force for divergence of policies across jurisdictions
4: Purposes of Union • Piecemeal reform → not much thought put into revisiting purposes of union • Growing issue now parallel/divergent democratic processes under way simultaneously • Debates on identity and values necessary but not sufficient • ‘Union’ is also about interests, policy outcomes, solidarity achievable/ desirable at a union-wide scale • What should the state do for all irrespective of where they live, and should not vary across jurisdictions? • How far should risk be shared by all citizens? • What is (seen to be) a fair territorial allocation of resources? • Without a union-wide discussion of union-wide interests post-devolution UK open to perceptions of injustice, opportunistic politicisation, piecemeal responses, etc
5. Territorial Finance • Open field for constitutional debate exemplified in territorial finance • Territorial financial arrangements centrally important • Emblematic of wider constitutional arrangements • Easily politicised, basis of territorial conflict • UK debate has two poles … • Fiscal equity – need – solidarity – tighter union • Fiscal autonomy – accountability – less solidarity – looser union • … and four territorial debates which shape debates between and within parties