1 the POLITICS of DEVOLUTION: INSTITUTIONALIZING SUBNATIONAL LEGISLATURES in SCOTLAND and WALES by LANCE WILLIAM BARDSLEY a DISS
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THE POLITICS OF DEVOLUTION: INSTITUTIONALIZING SUBNATIONAL LEGISLATURES IN SCOTLAND AND WALES By LANCE WILLIAM BARDSLEY A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2012 1 © 2012 Lance William Bardsley 2 To my Father and Mother 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I thank my committee members and especially Dr. Larry Dodd and Dr. Beth Rosenson, my two Co-Chairs for their patience and encouragement. I am most grateful to my friends in Wales and the Welsh Assembly who provided the original motivation to pursue a study of devolution in the United Kingdom. I am also grateful to the Hansard Society, which gave me the opportunity to do research in London and Edinburgh. I would also like to recognize the Rt. Hon. Bruce George MP, who graciously opened many doors for me during my time in England. I also thank my family for tolerating me and especially my loving wife, Jean. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 9 Methodology ........................................................................................................... 10 Thesis ..................................................................................................................... 12 2 A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE CONQUEST AND COLONIZATION OF WALES, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND BY ENGLAND ........................................... 31 The Initial Invasion and Conquest: Wales, Scotland, and Ireland ........................... 31 Scotland: The Path to Union ................................................................................... 35 Wales: The Path to Union ....................................................................................... 39 Ireland: The Path to Union ...................................................................................... 40 3 INTEGRATION: SCOTLAND AND THE PATH TO ADMINISTRATIVE DEVOLUTION ........................................................................................................ 48 The Incorporation of Scotland ................................................................................. 48 The Path to Administrative Devolution .................................................................... 51 Institutionalizing the Scottish Office ........................................................................ 59 4 INTEGRATION: WALES AND THE PATH TO ADMINISTRATIVE DEVOLUTION ........................................................................................................ 73 The Incorporation of Wales..................................................................................... 73 The Path to Administrative Devolution .................................................................... 75 5 HOME RULE AND THE RISE OF THE NATIONALISTS ....................................... 98 Scotland ................................................................................................................. 98 Wales ................................................................................................................... 107 6 DEVOLUTION, THE NATIONALISTS, AND THE LABOR PARTY 1960-1979: SCOTLAND AND WALES .................................................................................... 110 Wales: Labor and the Nationalists ........................................................................ 113 Scotland: Labor and the Nationalists .................................................................... 119 5 Labor and the Royal Commission on Devolution .................................................. 121 7 LABOR AND DEVOLUTION 1974-1979 .............................................................. 130 The 1974 Elections, Labor, and Devolution .......................................................... 130 Labor’s Devolution Policy and Parliament ............................................................ 145 The Referendum Campaign 1979 and Defeat: Scotland and Wales .................... 157 8 FROM “OLD” LABOR TO “NEW” LABOR, 1959-1997 ......................................... 177 9 TOWARD HOME RULE AGAIN: SCOTLAND AND WALES ................................ 227 10 THE FINAL ROAD TO DEVOLUTION: SCOTLAND AND WALES ...................... 249 11 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 271 Integration, Path Dependence, and Asymmetrical Devolution .............................. 271 Some Speculation about Nationalist Parties in Democratic States ....................... 278 Devolution and the Dimensions of Disorder ......................................................... 282 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 307 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 327 6 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy THE POLITICS OF DEVOLUTION: INSTITUTIONALIZING SUBNATIONAL LEGISLATURES IN SCOTLAND AND WALES By Lance William Bardsley December 2012 Chair: Larry Dodd Cochair: Beth Rosenson Major: Political Science This study utilizes two different theoretical approaches to analyze the institutionalization of subnational legislatures in two regions of the United Kingdom. The first approach examines the historical legacy of the incorporation process of Scotland and Wales into the English state using a path dependency model. The argument states that the failure of incorporation to achieve total assimilation of both regions is a critical juncture; this failure left a residual element of national identity that in the nineteenth and twentieth century provided the foundation for a national resurgence. The response of the central government in London was to implement an administrative devolution as a means to placate national concerns, the second critical juncture, which institutionalized the recognition that both regions required separate policy considerations that were different from the larger English state. Later, this national resurgence was captured by newly established national parties that challenged the electoral dominance of the two- party systems in both Scotland and Wales. The second theoretical approach utilizes Lieberman’s dimensions of disorder to explain how the Labor Party confronted the rising challenge of the national parties in 7 regions that had become parliamentary party strongholds by the 1950s. The analysis demonstrates how short-term electoral incentives eventually forced a reluctant Labor Party to support further devolution to the two regions despite considerable resistance from the party’s elites and rank and file members during the 1974 parliamentary elections. The result was an uncoordinated policy process that failed, causing the Labor government to lose power and be banished to the electoral wilderness for eighteen years. Only after considerable reform philosophically and organizationally did the Labor Party remerge as electorally competitive and finally embrace devolution as a policy repackaged as constitutional change. What the study demonstrates is how macro-level political and social processes influenced the long-term political environment, which placed considerable pressure on existing political institutions. This pressure, in turn, forced key political actors to make micro-decisions within those institutions, producing intended and unintended political outcomes that resulted in revised institutional arrangements and a new level of institutional structure within Scotland and Wales. 8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In Prime Minister Gladstone’s attempt to bring home rule to Ireland in 1886, he searched through British political history to inform his understanding of home rule within the context of the existing British Empire. As a result of this search, he discovered the ideas of another great imperialist and British parliamentarian: Edmund Burke. Burke insisted that home rule, or, in contemporary terms, devolution, did not threaten the established British state or its empire but actually strengthened it by granting limited authority to the devolved legislatures of its white colonies to conduct local business. The success of the British North American Act 1867 in Canada was evidence of this benefit. In his defense of the American colonies over the issue of taxation, he argued that Westminster, as the empire’s imperial parliament, served two functions. The first was as the “local legislature of this island”; the second was as the imperial parliament of the empire, “in which as from the throne of heaven, she superintends all the several legislatures, and guides and controls them all without annihilating any” (Rhys, 1961, pp. 59-60). Burke understood these functions to be separable; thus, the colonies could assume responsibility for local legislation. Therefore, the constitutional principle of parliamentary sovereignty could remain intact because the imperial function did not require the centralization of all local functions in Westminster. According to Burke, two political communities