Territorial Politics, Regionalism and England

2021 ◽  
pp. 241-272
Author(s):  
Jonathan Bradbury

This chapter addresses the reform of government in England over the entire period between 1997 and 2007. First, the chapter considers the nature of the territorial strain, problem and resources for change present in England. Second, the chapter considers peripheral elite leadership in England — whether through intermediate English elite or English regional elite leadership — and the codes, strategies and goals pursued. It explores further the thesis that movements for territorial change also in England adopted indirect instrumental cases for territorial reform rather than direct identity-based ones, emphasising functional arguments and the development of institutional mechanisms for gradual decentralisation, rather than major root and branch reform. Third, the chapter analyses the approach of UK central government, and in particular that of the British Labour leadership both in opposition before 1997 and in government afterwards. Here, we should note that Bulpitt suggested that the English governing code had tended to parallel the indirect local elite assimilation approach used territorially in the rest of the UK. Nevertheless, under modernisation projects since the 1960s, including those of the Thatcher–Major governments, the overall government strategy was a promotional one, often requiring direct central intervention in the short term to realise central governing projects. Finally, the chapter assesses the policy process by which English reform was developed, the extent to which it may be seen as effective and legitimate, and judged as successful or not in sustaining a new centre.

2021 ◽  
pp. 69-102
Author(s):  
Jonathan Bradbury

This chapter addresses territorial politics and the introduction of devolution in Scotland. It discusses the validity of the proposition that, even in Scotland, resources were weak relative to reformers' aspirations. Throughout, the chapter addresses the movement for territorial change in Scotland and explores the proposition that in the context of power politics and resource deficiencies, it adopted constrained aims and incorporated an instrumentalist approach to achieve them. Equally, the chapter considers how the British Labour leadership politically managed the emergence of devolution proposals, and explores the idea that in the context of similar relative resource deficiencies, it adopted a code focused on achieving indirect central control. Finally, the chapter considers the policy process by which devolution proposals were created, both in opposition and in government, and the extent to which it contributed to their perceived effectiveness and legitimacy, and whether Scottish devolution overall could be considered to be a successful reform. To address these issues and theoretical questions, the chapter develops chronologically. Section one focuses on territorial politics and the political debate on the constitutional question in Scotland and at the UK centre in the 1980s. Section two addresses the preparation of devolution policy in Scotland during the 1990s and the significance of the referendum on Scottish devolution held in September 1997. Finally, section three considers the Blair government's preparation of devolution policy 1997–8, the Scotland Act 1998 and plans for its implementation.


Author(s):  
Mark Liptrott

This chapter evaluates the UK government strategy to promote electronic voting through the public policy process as an integral part of the e-government agenda to enhance participatory democracy. It argues that the formulation of the present policy is flawed as it lacks a diffusion strategy to enhance the likelihood of policy adoption. The electoral modernisation policy arose from concerns regarding the falling voter turnout at elections and is being introduced via local authorities through a series of voluntary pilot schemes. If issues influencing local authority pilot participation are not resolved e-voting may be permanently rejected by local elected representatives and so will not be available to citizens. This author identifies variables influencing pilot participation and suggests a revised public policy model incorporating selected diffusion concepts at the formulation stage of the linear policy process. The model is used to propose recommendations to enhance the likelihood of voluntary adoption of a policy introduced by central government for voluntary implementation by local government.


2021 ◽  
pp. 307-322
Author(s):  
Jonathan Bradbury

The book has provided four sets of conclusions. First, the examination of territorial strain, the nature of territorial problems and the characteristics of background conditions gives us a lens through which to evaluate critically the social, economic and cultural context to territorial politics. The second set of conclusions relate to the approaches used in the movements for territorial constitutional change in exploiting the support they did have and overcoming those weaknesses that still existed. As part of the reality of how territorial change happens it is to be expected that in the particular case of the UK that all territorial movements emerged out of party political contestation and self-interested party choices, and then had to define approaches heavily determined by party constraints. The third set of conclusions relate to UK central government. The UK centre was also in part defined by the pursuit of party power, and the key party at the UK level ready to address territorial constitutional reform — the Labour Party — faced large challenges and anxieties after 18 years out of office when they prepared for the 1997 general election. The final set of conclusions relate to the importance of constitutional policy processes to the resolution of conflicts in centre–periphery relations. Approaches to the development of devolution policy were followed which made the best efforts to achieve territorial balance under the constraints that they faced. The policy processes in Scotland and Northern Ireland achieved sometimes high, but at least sufficient, levels of inclusiveness in their mechanisms of negotiation.


2021 ◽  
pp. 103-136
Author(s):  
Jonathan Bradbury

This chapter addresses territorial politics and the introduction of devolution in Wales. In seeking to reappraise the politics of devolution in Wales, the chapter focuses on the power politics of how devolution was progressed; the chapter also applies the same framework of analysis on understanding how, why and with what intentions devolution was introduced. It discusses the nature of the territorial strain that Wales posed for the UK and the political resources behind territorial change, considering the extent to which bottom-up pressures had strengthened or not. It considers the politics of elite leadership of constitutional change and the code, strategy and goals of peripheral assertion applied. In so doing, it explores the utility of the proposition that instrumental policy arguments and mechanisms were at the forefront of the case for change. Equally, throughout the chapter there is consideration of how the British Labour leadership politically managed the development of devolution proposals both in opposition and in government, and again of the code, strategy and goals which it pursued. In so doing, the chapter explores the proposition that the Labour leadership adopted traditional territorial management methods to constrain the implications of devolution primarily through local elite assimilation. Finally, the chapter considers the policy process by which devolution proposals were created, both in opposition and in government, and the extent to which it contributed to their perceived effectiveness and legitimacy, and indeed the sense in which Welsh devolution could be also considered in the short to medium term as a successful reform.


2021 ◽  
pp. 273-306
Author(s):  
Jonathan Bradbury

This chapter addresses UK central government and devolution over the whole period, focusing on how the centre articulated Britishness and approached the issues of law making and parliament, intergovernmental relations, and territorial finance in the light of devolution. The chapter places a principal focus on how the Blair governments developed the central state in the light of devolution. It explores the role of territorial pressures and constraints in thinking about adaptation at the centre; the availability of political resources in shaping approaches to reform; choices over the use of those resources; and the policy process adopted in making those choices. In so doing the chapter considers to what extent the evidence supports the proposition that following Bulpitt, the Blair governments sought to fashion an approach also to the development of the central state in the light of devolution that maintained a centre autonomy model of centre–periphery relations. The implication is that they sought this goal both to assist the successful embedding of devolution in ways amenable to the state as a whole, as well as maintaining effective UK government across all its priorities, not simply territorial management. The chapter draws on the published work of Trench, which was based on extensive interviews in Whitehall in the early 2000s, and reconsiders it within the book's framework of analysis.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-32
Author(s):  
Philip L. Martin ◽  
Martin Ruhs

The independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) was created in 2007 after a decade in which the share of foreign-born workers in the British labour force doubled to 13 per cent. The initial core mandate of the MAC was to provide “independent, evidence-based advice to government on specific skilled occupations in the labour market where shortages exist which can sensibly be filled by migration.” The MAC's answers to these 3-S questions, viz, is the occupation for which employers are requesting foreign workers skilled, are there labour shortages, and is admitting foreign workers a sensible response, have improved the quality of the debate over the “need” for foreign workers in the UK by highlighting some of the important trade-offs inherent in migration policy making. The MAC can clarify migration trade-offs in labour immigration policy, but cannot decide the ultimately political questions about whose interests should be prioritised and how competing policy objectives should be balanced.


2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diether W. Beuermann ◽  
Antonios Antoniou ◽  
Alejandro Bernales
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Louçã Francisco ◽  
Ash Michael

Chapter 5 traces how free market ideology displaced the apparent consensus on economic regulation that emerged from the Depression, the New Deal, and the Second World War. Viewed as cranks within economics through the 1960s, Milton Friedman and his supporters built an apparatus of ideas, publications, students, think tanks, and rich supporters, establishing outposts in Latin America and the UK. When developed economies faltered in the 1970s, Friedman’s neoliberal doctrine was ready. With citizens, consumers, and workers feeling worked over by monopolies, inflation, unemployment, and taxes, these strange bedfellows elected Reagan in the US and Thatcher in the UK and rolled to power in academia and in public discourse with a doctrine of privatization, liberalization, and deregulation. Friedman, Eugene Fama, and James Buchanan whose radical free market views triumphed at the end of the 1970s are profiled. A technical appendix, “Skeptics and Critics vs. True Believers” explores the economic debates.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-353
Author(s):  
Evette B. M. Hillman ◽  
Sjoerd Rijpkema ◽  
Danielle Carson ◽  
Ramesh P. Arasaradnam ◽  
Elizabeth M. H. Wellington ◽  
...  

Bile acid diarrhoea (BAD) is a widespread gastrointestinal disease that is often misdiagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome and is estimated to affect 1% of the United Kingdom (UK) population alone. BAD is associated with excessive bile acid synthesis secondary to a gastrointestinal or idiopathic disorder (also known as primary BAD). Current licensed treatment in the UK has undesirable effects and has been the same since BAD was first discovered in the 1960s. Bacteria are essential in transforming primary bile acids into secondary bile acids. The profile of an individual’s bile acid pool is central in bile acid homeostasis as bile acids regulate their own synthesis. Therefore, microbiome dysbiosis incurred through changes in diet, stress levels and the introduction of antibiotics may contribute to or be the cause of primary BAD. This literature review focuses on primary BAD, providing an overview of bile acid metabolism, the role of the human gut microbiome in BAD and the potential options for therapeutic intervention in primary BAD through manipulation of the microbiome.


2021 ◽  
pp. 009145092110025
Author(s):  
Ali Unlu ◽  
Fatih Demiroz ◽  
Tuukka Tammi ◽  
Pekka Hakkarainen

Drug consumption rooms (DCRs) have been established to reach high-risk people who use drugs (PWUDs) and reduce drug-associated harm. Despite effectiveness, their establishment requires strong advocacy and efforts since moral perspectives tend to prevail over health outcomes in many countries. DCRs have generally emerged as a local response to inadequate central government policy. Likewise, the initiative of the Municipality of Helsinki in 2018 opened up a discussion between central government, society, and local actors in Finland. This would be the first DCR in Finland, which makes the policy process and the progress of the initiative interesting for analysis. In this article, the identification of agents, structures of interactions, environmental challenges, and policy opportunities are analyzed within the framework of complexity theory. Our results show that the initiative faces policy barriers that have mainly arisen from the conceptualization of DCRs in moral frameworks that result in the prolongation of political and professional actors to take a position on DCRs.


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