Understanding the Impact of Devolution on UK Governance and Finance, Slides of Sociology

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Insights from the ESRC Devolution

Programme

ESRC Devolution Programme

• 38 projects at UK universities, a dozen or

so in Scotland

• 170 researchers
• £5 million
• Main themes
  1. How (apparently) radical institutional change
  2. Interacts with multi-national identities
  3. To produce new forms of governance, new policies
• UK-wide remit: territorial asymmetries

and UK-level/statewide implications

Exploring Disequilibrium

• Apparently radical reform, but structural

continuities

• Devolution = democratisation of differentiated territorial administration outside England pre-
• Not much change in England
• Five imbalances in consequence: 1. Piecemeal reform , no big picture 2. Intergovernmental coordination not fit for purpose

3. UK govt made lopsided by an unreformed England
4. Too little thought about purposes of union in new circumstances
5. 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

1. Mix of devolution outside England and centralisation of England not approached as integrated system of government
2. Self-contained reforms blind to possibility of spillovers, i.e. reform in one place has unanticipated impacts on other places, e.g. …

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

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 N Ireland – fiscal autonomy to compete with Republic and equity to cover NI needs

Wales – fiscal equity to cover Welsh needs

Scotland – fiscal autonomy (both for accountability and as step to independence), UK-wide equity system as statement of union

England – parallel equity debates: south unhappy with transfer of resources to Scotland, north unhappy at receipts in comparison to Scotland