Beyond Devolution and Decentralisation: Building Regional Capacity in Wales and Brittany

209 Pages·2006·0.713 MB·English

by  Alistair Cole

Beyond devolution
and decentralisation
DEVOLUTION series
series editor Charlie Jeffrey already published
Devolution has established new political Between two Unions
institutions in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Europeanisation and
London and the other English regions since Scottish devolution
1997. These devolution reforms have far- Paolo Dardanelli
reaching implications for the politics, policy and
society of the UK. Radical institutional change,
Territorial politics and
combined with a fuller capacity to express the
health policy
UK’s distinctive territorial identities, is reshaping
UK health policy
the way the UK is governed and opening up
in comparativeperspective
new directions of public policy. These are the
Scott L. Greer
biggest changes to UK politics for at least 150
years.
The English Question
Robert Hazell
The Devolutionseries brings together the best
research in the UK on devolution and its
implications. It draws together the best analysis Devolution and electoral
from the Economic and Social Research Council’s politics
research programme on Devolution and Dan Hough and Charlie
Constitutional Change. The series will have Jeffery (eds)
three central themes, each of which are vital
components in understanding the changes
devolution has set in train.
1 Delivering public policy after devolution:
diverging from Westminster: Does devolution
result in the provision of different standards of
public service in health or education, or in
widening economic disparities from one part of
the UK to another? If so, does it matter?
2 The political institutions of devolution: How
well do the new devolved institutions work?
How effectively are devolved and UK-level
matters coordinated? How have political
organisations which have traditionally operated
UK-wide – political parties, interest groups –
responded to multi-level politics?
3 Public attitudes, devolution and national
identity: How do people in different parts of
the UK assess the performance of the new
devolved institutions? Do people identify
themselves differently as a result of devolution?
Does a common sense of Britishness still unite
people from different parts of the UK?
Beyond devolution
and decentralisation
Building regional capacity
in Wales and Brittany
Alistair Cole
Manchester University Press
Manchester and New York
distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave
Copyright © Alistair Cole 2006
The right of Alistair Cole to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published byManchester University Press
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andRoom 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
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Distributed exclusively in Canada by
UBC Press, University of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall,
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for
ISBN0 7190 7092 9 hardback
EAN 978 0 7190 7092 1
First published 2006
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Typeset by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Manchester
Printed in Great Britain
by Biddles Ltd, King’s Lynn
Contents
List of tables pagevi
Preface vii
1 Regional capacity building in Europe 1
2 Comparing France and the United Kingdom 18
3 Wales and Brittany: history, politics, society 40
4 Devolution and polity building in Wales 62
5 Decentralisation and political capacity building in Brittany 87
6 Political institutions, public and elite opinions in Wales and Brittany 112
7 Policy communities, public policy and policy learning in Wales and
Brittany 137
8 Regional political capacity in Wales and Brittany 161
Bibliography 180
Index 192
List of tables
2.1 Sub-national authorities in France in 2002 page 34
3.1 Comparing political and policy contexts 44
6.1 Institutional preferences in Wales and Brittany 115
6.2 The Moreno identity scale for Brittany and Wales 118
6.3 Identity and institutional preferences in Wales 119
6.4 Identity and institutional preferences in Brittany 120
6.5 Voting intentions and institutional preferences in Wales 121
6.6 Voting intentions and institutional preferences in Brittany 121
6.7 First priority for regional expenditure in Wales and Brittany 123
6.8 Logistic regression estimates for Wales 127
6.9 Logistic regression estimates for Brittany 128
6.10 Interview and mass opinions in Brittany compared 132
6.11 Interview and mass opinions in Wales compared 133
Preface
Beyond Devolution and Decentralisation has been a long-standing enterprise, con-
ceived in 2000 and begun in earnest in 2001. The research project upon which the
book is based was financed by the Economic and Social Research Council under the
title of ‘Devolution and Decentralisation in Wales and Brittany’ (Grant number L 219
25 2007). I thank the council for its support. With assistance from colleagues on the
research project, a total of 104 interviews in Wales and 101 interviews in Brittany were
conducted from April 2001 to March 2004. These interviews were taped and tran-
scribed, and lasted between thirty minutes and one hour. Thanks are due to all the
interviewees in the two countries for their co-operation. Beyond that Market Research
Wales and Efficience 3 were commissioned to carry out a comparative public-opinion
survey in Wales and Brittany in June and July 2001. A representative sample of around
1000 (1008 in Wales, 1007 in Brittany), selected by quotas of age, gender, socio-eco-
nomic group and locality, was interviewed in each region.
Beyond Devolution and Decentralisation compares the politics, policies and polity
building dynamics of devolution in Wales and decentralisation in the French region of
Brittany. Through investigating two historic regions (Wales and Brittany) in two
neighbouring European Union states, the aim was to achieve a deeper understanding
of processes of comparative regional governance in Europe. Empirically, the book
draws conclusions from in-depth fieldwork within the two regions and reports the
findings of the comparative opinion survey. Theoretically, the intent was to contribute
a fascinating comparative case study to the understanding of the various dimensions
comprising regional political capacity.
Comparison of Wales and Brittany plays itself out at a number of levels, each of
which has a rather different intellectual rationale and supporting body of literature.
This study seeks to establish comparative dynamics in Wales and Brittany. What weight
should be given to national institutional traditions in both countries? How important
are regionally specific explanations and how can these be conceptualised? Can distinc-
tions be drawn between policy issue-areas (regional languages and training) and, if so,
what does this tell about the operation of regional institutions in the two countries?
What lessons can policy-makers draw from observing practice elsewhere? How does
public opinion view the prospect of greater regional autonomy, and what are the
acceptable parameters within which public policy is formulated in the two regions?
Throughout the book, empirical answers are sought for these questions of compara-
tive analysis.
In addition to the mass survey, the research endeavoured to uncover the dynamics
viii PREFACE
of devolution in Wales and decentralisation in Brittany through extensive face-to-face
interviews. These interviews were semi-structured, combining a small number of
routine questions with a range of institutional and policy-specific questions aimed at
attaining a maximum of information in areas of great technical complexity and insti-
tutional uncertainty. This method was especially pertinent in Wales, due to the new
institutional framework put into place by devolution. I sincerely thank everybody who
agreed to be interviewed during the 2001–2002 period, a formative stage in the devel-
opment of the devolved institutions in Wales and a period of expectation in Brittany
as well.
I would like to record my sincere gratitude to the following people, all of whom
contributed to the development of the project and freely gave up their time: Gaelle
Abily, Thierry Acquitter, Martine Allais, Michel André, Olier ar Mogn, Loiag ar Roc,
Yannig Baron, Lorraine Barrett, Pierre Baudewyns, Maurice Baylé, Michel Bellion,
Graham Benfield, Chris Bettinson, Mark Beynon, Mike Bialyj, Pierre Blanc, Sylvie
Blottière, Christian Bonnet, Nick Bourne, Pierre Boyer, Jean Brihault, Fanch Broudig,
Paul Bullock, Eleanor Burnham, Henri Bussery, Marcel Calvez, Lauro Capdevila,
Daniel Carré, Denis Cassell, Anna Vari Chapalain, Christine Chapman, Geneviève
Chignac, Des Clifford, Helen Conway, Jacques Cosquer, Jean-Yves Cozan, Richard
Crawshaw, Jean-Jacques Creac’h, Cynog Dafis, Daniel David, Jane Davidson, Byron
Davies, Glyn Davies, Jocelyn Davies, Ron Davies, Josselin de Rohan, Marc Debène,
Annick Decrop, Patrick Délorme, Christian Demeure-Vallée, Gwendal Denez, Per
Denez, MichelDenis, Alasdair Denton, Philippe Desnos, Shelia Drury, Jean Claude
du Chalard, Elisabeth Dupoirier, Mel Edwards, Daffyd Elis Thomas, Ieuan Ellis,
Delyth Evans, Emyr Evans, Jenny Evans, Phil Evans, Chris Farrow, FrancisFavereau,
Anne Fayolle, Yvette Folliard, Jo Fontaine, Eve Fouilleux, Yann Fournis, Yves Fréville,
Gérard Gauthier, Olivier Geffroy, Mike German, Bernard Gestyn, YvonnigGicquel,
Russell Goodway, Alain Gourves, John Graystone, John Griffiths, Miriam Griffiths,
Ifor Gruffydd, Annick Guillou-Moinard, Christian Guyonvarc’h, Christine Gwyther,
Gareth Hall, Tony Harris, Alain Hellard-Goff, Edmond Hervé, Stephen Hutchinson,
Mark Isherwood, Glenville Jackson, Yvon Jacob, Philippe Jacq, Charlie Jeffery, David
Jenkins, Pippa John-Clarke, Alun Ffred Jones, Barry Jones, Elin Jones, Gareth Jones,
John Walter Jones, Sir Harry Jones, Tom Jones, Jean-Louis Jossic, Jacques Kergoat,
Marc Kerrien, Riwanon Kervella, Tim Key, Shelaagh Keyse, Milica Kitson, Marie
Knox, David Lambert, Alain Lancelot, Jean-Louis Latour, André Lavennant, Peter
Law, Ronan le Coadic, Jean-Yves Le Drian, Alain Le Gal, Patrick Le Galès, Bernard le
Nail, Ronan Le Prohon, Michèle le Roux, Pierre Le Treut, Marylise Lebranchu, André
Legrand, Renaud Lemaire, Jacques Leroy, Huw Lewis, Andrew Lincoln, Lena
Louarn, Tangi Louarn, Sean Loughlin, Paul Loveluck, François Madelain, Pierre
Malrieu, Gérard Marcou, Anne Marek, John Marek, Jean-Pierre Marholtz, Alan
Marin, Joseph Martray, Georges McKechnie, Pierre Méhaignérie, Philippe Merrien,
Rozen Milin, Stefan Moal, Jonathan Morgan, Rhodri Morgan, Tom Morgan, Yves
Morvan, Paul Murphy, Marie Navarro, Erik Neveu, Peter Normann, Marie-Renée
Oget, Jean-Pierre Orhan, James Osborne, John Osmond, François Pannetier, Steve
Pantak, Leslie Parfitt, Laurence Park, Simon Pascoe, Isabelle Payoux, Michel
Phlipponneau, Mike Pierce, Gilles Pinson, Bernard Pivette, Steven Place, Gerard
Poidevin, Steve Pomeroy, Gérard Pourchet, James Price, Helen Prosser, Alun Pugh,
François Quéré, Matthew Quinn, Gareth Rees, Terry Rees, Soazig Renault, Llew
Rhys, Loic Richard, Nia Richardson, Alain Rissel, Jean-Louis Robert, Henry Roberts,
PREFACE ix
David Rosser, Bernadette Rouvière, Jan Royall, Meurig Royles, Joseph Salvi, Olivia
Schofield, Karen Sinclair, Marie-Pierre Sineau, Anne Stevenson, Alan Storer, Chris
Thomas, Mike Thomas, Rhodri Glyn Thomas, Richard Thomas, Jean-Pierre Thomin,
Alan Tillotson, Jane Timmins, Bernard Toulemonde, Christian Troadec, Caroline
Turner, Jean-Yves Veillard, Luc Vivier, Sir Adrian Webb, Daffyd Whittall, Daffyd
Wigley, Colin Williams, John V. Williams, Phil Williams and Rhodri Williams.
Special thanks go to my colleagues on the ESRC project Barry Jones, Sean
Loughlin and Colin Williams, as well as to my three research assistants: Alan Storer,
who assisted me in interviews across Wales in 2001/2002; Nia Richardson, who effi-
ciently organised the conference on 14 March 2003 which brought the Welsh and
Breton regional leaders together; and Yann Fournis, who carried out some fascinating
interviews in Brittany. As usual, most thanks go to Caroline, for her unbearing
patience. Mind you, she did get something in return . . .
Alistair Cole, Cardiff, 27 January 2005