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McGarvey Prelims 20/3/08 9:07 am Page i Scottish Politics McGarvey Prelims 20/3/08 9:07 am Page ii McGarvey Prelims 20/3/08 9:07 am Page iii Scottish Politics An Introduction Neil McGarvey and Paul Cairney McGarvey Prelims 20/3/08 9:07 am Page iv © Neil McGarvey and Paul Cairney 2008 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2008 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN-13: 978–1–4039–4328–6 hardback ISBN-10: 1–4039–4328–1 hardback ISBN-13: 978–1–4039–4329–3 paperback ISBN-10: 1–4039–4329–X paperback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10987654321 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 Printed and bound in China McGarvey Prelims 20/3/08 9:07 am Page v For Sean Michael, Linda, Evie, Alfie and Frankie McGarvey Prelims 20/3/08 9:07 am Page vi McGarvey Prelims 20/3/08 9:07 am Page vii Contents List of Boxes, Figures and Tables xi Preface and Acknowledgements xiv List of Abbreviations xvii 1 What is Scottish Politics? 1 What is ‘politics’? 1 What is Scottish? 5 The Scottish politics of difference 8 A Scottish political system? 10 New politics 11 Key themes 16 2 Devolution: Historical and Social Context 22 Administrative devolution and the Scottish political system 24 The rise of the home-rule agenda 27 The 1979 referendum 30 The Conservative years, 1979–97 32 The Scottish Contitutional Convention, 1989–95 34 The 1997 referendum 36 The Scottish media 39 Conclusion 43 3 Scotland’s Political Parties 46 Scottish political parties 47 Scotland’s changing party system 61 Trends in party organization 63 Conclusion 66 4 Scottish Elections and Voting Behaviour 68 Electoral systems in Scotland 69 Local elections in Scotland 72 Scottish voting behaviour 74 Party campaigning 81 Candidate selection 84 Is the Scottish electorate left-wing? 85 Conclusion 86 vii McGarvey Prelims 20/3/08 9:07 am Page viii viii Contents 5 The Scottish Parliament: Actor, Arena and Agenda-Setter? 88 The CSG proposals on parliamentary business 89 The legislative process in Holyrood and Westminster – government bills 92 The legislative process in Westminster and Holyrood – non-government bills 95 The powers of Scottish Parliament committees 97 Parliamentary questions and committee inquiries 100 Non-government bills 102 Influencing Scottish government primary legislation 104 The effect of minority government 107 Conclusion 107 6 The Scottish Government 110 Scottish government ministers – how do they compare to the UK? 112 First ministers since 1999 116 The civil service 123 The SNP and an independent civil service 130 Conclusion 131 7 Governance Beyond the Scottish Government 134 Local government 135 Government agencies and non-departmental public bodies (quangos) 142 Changing governance in Scotland 145 Regulating governance in Scotland 150 Conclusion 152 8 Inter-Governmental Relations and Multi-Level Governance 156 IGR and MLG 157 Reserved and devolved areas in Scotland 159 Policy areas with boundary issues 160 Policy issues arising since devolution 161 Intergovernmental relations – Scotland and the UK 163 Why have formal mechanisms been so rarely used? 167 Intergovernmental relations and legislation: Sewel motions 168 Creating policy space in Scotland 170 Scotland in Europe 171 How do interest groups deal with multi-level governance? 174 Conclusion 176 McGarvey Prelims 20/3/08 9:07 am Page ix Contents ix 9 Money and Power: Public Expenditure in Scotland 178 Advantage and power in Scottish public finance 179 The Barnett forumula and the Barnett ‘squeeze’ 180 Agenda-setting and the politics of public spending 181 Life before Barnett 182 Barnett and needs assessment 183 Funding from other sources 184 Is the Scottish settlement fair? 186 Lies, damned lies and Scottish public expenditure statistics 188 Where does Scotland spend its money? 189 UK Treasury power and the Scottish political system 191 Power within Scotland: the Scottish parliament and the spending process 194 Public expenditure and central–local relations 196 Conclusion 196 10 Public Policy in Scotland Since Devolution 199 Measuring change: what is public policy? 201 Reasons for divergence 202 Primary legislation as a test of divergence 204 Flagship policies and beyond: 1999–2003 205 Flagship policies and beyond: 2003–07 207 Flagship policies and beyond: 2007– 209 Limits to a focus on primary legislation 210 Limits to a focus on divergence 213 Divergence and implementation 214 Conclusion 217 11 Assessing Scottish Democracy 219 Democracy 220 New politics and strawmen 224 Microcosmic representation 226 The Scottish Civic Forum (SCF) 231 Public petitions 233 Interest groups and participation 235 Conclusion 240 12 Conclusion 242 Studying Scottish politics 242 Is there a Scottish political system now? 245 New politics: aspirations not realized? 247 The Scottish Government 250 The Scottish government in the wider world 251 McGarvey Prelims 20/3/08 9:07 am Page x x Contents Policy change, covergence and divergence 252 Power and politics in Scotland 254 The Constitutional question 255 Final remarks: difference and dependence, continuity and change 258 Bibliography 260 Index 287 McGarvey Prelims 20/3/08 9:07 am Page xi List of Boxes, Figures and Tables Boxes 1.1 Power and agenda-setting 2 1.2 Reserved and devolved policy areas 4 1.3 Infamous quotes about Scottish politics 9 2.1 The Westminster model of UK politics 23 2.2 The poll tax 33 2.3 The Scottish Constitutional Convention 35 2.4 Scotland as a case study in the European Union and beyond? 38 2.5 Unionism and Scottish politics 39 2.6 Post-devolution alleged political scandals: Lobbygate, Officegate, Warkgate 40 2.7 The tabloid media in Scotland 43 3.1 Key roles of political parties in Scotland 46 3.2 Factionalism in Scotland’s political parties 50 3.3 Ideology and Scotland’s major political parties 56 3.4 Scotland’s minor parties 59 3.5 Scotland’s party competition since 1945 61 3.6 Issues for Scottish political parties today 65 4.1 Mixed member proportional systems in comparative perspective 70 4.2 The d’Hondt divisor 71 4.3 Section 28 79 4.4 Post-materialism and voting 80 4.5 Rational and tactical voting 81 4.6 Summary of party manifestos at the 2007 Scottish election 82 5.1 Functions of Parliament 89 5.2 The role of the Presiding Officer 93 5.3 Case study: the member’s bill on smoking in public places 96 5.4 Are Scottish parliamentary committees effective? 99 5.5 The Health Committee and free personal care for older people 101 6.1 The structure of the Scottish Government, with responsibilities (from June 2007) 111 6.2 The Lord Advocate 114 6.3 Majority, coalition and minority government 121 6.4 The Scottish Government budget and staffing 124 6.5 The civil service in a comparative perspective 126 xi McGarvey Prelims 20/3/08 9:07 am Page xii xii List of Boxes, Figures and Tables 7.1 The defining characteristics of Scottish local government 136 7.2 Local governance in comparative perspective 137 7.3 The politics of public–private partnerships 139 7.4 Is the Scottish state ‘hollowing out’? 148 7.5 Scottish Council for Voluntary Organizations (SCVO) 149 7.6 New Public Management (NPM) 151 7.7 Regulatory funding bodies 152 8.1 The West Lothian question and the role of Scottish MPs 165 8.2 Gordon Brown, Prime Minister 166 8.3 The House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution (2002) 170 8.4 EU institutions and organizations 173 9.1 Incrementalism and public expenditure 179 9.2 Fiscal autonomy 185 9.3 How much did the SNP government’s budget rise in 2007? 192 9.4 Scottish finance in comparative perspective 194 9.5 Accounting for Scotland’s public expenditure 195 10.1 Tests of Scottish policy: divergence, legitimacy and ownership 200 10.2 Social inclusion and multi-institutional policy-making 211 10.3 Policy divergence in comparative perspective 212 11.1 Referendums in a comparative perspective 222 11.2 New politics and democracy: criticisms 225 11.3 Politics-‘facilitating’ professions 229 11.4 Functions of the Scottish Civic Forum 231 11.5 Interest groups: the post-devolution experience 236 11.6 Pluralism and the usual suspects 239 12.1 The SNP’s ‘national conversation’ 256 12.2 The English question
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