The Territorial Dimension in United Kingdom Politics

262 Pages·1982·28.024 MB·English

by  Peter Madgwick, Richard Rose (eds.)

THE TERRITORIAL DIMENSION IN UNITED KINGDOM POLITICS
The contributors
JIM BULPITT, University of Warwick
BRIAN W. Hoowooo, University of Strathclyde
J. BARRY JoNES, University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology
MicHAEL J. KEATING, University of Strathclyde
JAMES G. KELLAS, University of Glasgow
IAN McALLISTER, Australian National University (formerly University of
Strathclyde)
PETER MADGWICK, Oxford Polytechnic (formerly University College of
Wales, Aberystwyth)
WILLIAM L. MILLER, University of Strathclyde
PHILLIP RAWKINS, Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, Toronto
RICHARD RosE, University of Strathclyde
A publication of the Political Studies Association Work Group on United
Kingdom Politics
THE TERRITORIAL
DIMENSION IN UNITED
KINGDOM POLITICS
Edited by
Peter Madgwick
Oxford Polytechnic
and
Richard Rose
University of Strathclyde
Selection and editorial matter © Peter Madgwick and Richard Rose 1982.
Chapter 1 © James G. Kellas and Peter Madgwick 1982. Chapter 2 © Brian
W. Hagwood 1982. Chapter 3 © Peter Madgwick and Phillip Rawkins
1982. Chapter 4 © Richard Rose 1982. Chapter 5 © Jim Bulpitt 1982.
Chapter 6 © J. Barry Jones and Michael J. Keating 1982. Chapter 7 © Ian
McAllister 1982. Chapter 8 © William L. Miller 1982.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1982
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission
First published 1982 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-1-349-05605-7 ISBN 978-1-349-05603-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-05603-3
Contents
Acknowledgements vi
Introduction
Peter Madgwick and Richard Rose
PART I THE POLICY PROCESS 7
1 Territorial Ministries: the Scottish and Welsh Offices
James G. Kellas and Peter Madgwick 9
2 The Regional Dimension of Industrial Policy
Brian W. Hogwood 34
3 The Welsh Language in the Policy Process
Peter Madgwick and Phillip Rawkins 67
4 Is the United Kingdom a State? Northern Ireland as a Test Case
Richard Rose 100
PART II MOBILISING POPULAR SUPPORT 137
5 Conservatism, Unionism and the Problem of Territorial
Management
Jim Bulpitt 139
6 The British Labour Party: Centralisation and Devolution
J. Barry Jones and Michael J. Keating 177
7 United Kingdom Nationalist Parties: One Nationalism or Three?
Ian McAllister 202
8 Variations in Electoral Behaviour in the United Kingdom
William L. Miller 224
Index 251
Acknowledgements
Like the United Kingdom, this book is the product of an amalgam of
peoples. The ten authors have diverse origins, being from England,
Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and even from the other side of the
thirteen American colonies. A wide-ranging group of authors is necessary to
embrace a wide-ranging subject. Whilst politics in England may be studied
in a single London postal district, SWl, the politics of the United Kingdom
covers a far greater expanse of territory. To examine the subject properly,
authors must be at home in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast as well as
Westminster.
Like its subject, this book is the product of a lengthy gestation process. It
reflects five years of continuing discussion among members of the Work
Group on United Kingdom Politics. The Work Group was founded under the
auspices of the Political Studies Association as a forum for the serious and
rigorous examination of the variety of ways in which the United Kingdom is
governed. We have not isolated Scottish politics, Welsh politics, Ulster
politics, or English politics; scholars interested in each of these subjects have
been brought together to examine collectively the network of institutions that
constitutes the United Kingdom.
The editors have had the pleasure of acting as co-convenors of Work
Group discussions of up to two dozen papers at annual conferences at the
Universities of Strathclyde, Warwick, the University College of Wales,
Aberystwyth, and the University of Wales Institute of Science and
Technology, Cardiff. Two major publications have already been issued on
behalf of the Work Group by the Centre for the Study of Public Policy at the
University of Strathclyde: A Research Register of Territorial Politics in the
United Kingdom by J. Barry Jones, and A Bibliography of United Kingdom
Politics by Laurence Pollock and Ian McAllister. These publications reflect
the widespread interest in the subject outside as well·as within the United
Kingdom.
This book is the culmination of a dialogue about the diversity of the United
Kingdom and what holds it together. The Social Science Research Council
provided funds for our first two annual meetings. The Nuffield Foundation
deserves special thanks for a grant to support continuing activities of the
vi
Acknowledgements vii
Work Group, trusting that if we kept talking to each other long enough and
exchanging papers into the bargain, a book would result. Here it is.
PETER MAoowiCK RICHARD RosE
Introduction
PETER MADGWICK and RICHARD ROSE
Territory is an essential dimension of government. A modern state can no
more exist without territorial limits and divisions than a society could exist
without division into social classes. Territory is important politically. The
land contributes to national identity and images and symbols of community.
Politicians demand equitable treatment of all regions of a country, and
institutions of governance must be able to deliver the benefits of public
policy to all of its parts. In the competition for electoral advantage, political
parties articulate demands for particular areas as well as for the country as a
whole. Pressure groups voice what their members want- and where these
demands should be met.
To understand the United Kingdom in its entirety we must therefore
understand its parts- England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We
must also understand the institutions that unite one and one-fifth islands into
a single state. Understanding England is insufficient for an understanding of
the United Kingdom. England is, as it were, the sleeping partner in the
politics of the United Kingdom. There is no need for an English office in the
gallery of Whitehall ministries, for English voices and values are not absent
in the making of government policies. Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland, because they are smaller, take a disproportionate interest in the
territorial dimension of events at Westminster. There are Secretaries of State
for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to speak for each nation at
Westminster, and to speak for Westminster in each nation.
Historically, the United Kingdom is a composite of nations, that is,
communities of people with a distinctive social identity, and distinctive
political institutions too. To describe the United Kingdom as a multi
national state is to call attention to those things that differentiate its parts.
Wales lost its status as a separate principality in 1536, but did not thereby
lose its Welsh identity. A greater or lesser portion of Ireland has been more
or less under the Crown for 800 years, yet still remains politically
distinctive. Scotland and England co-existed as two separate Kingdoms with
2 Peter Madgwick and Richard Rose
one monarch for a century before the Union of 1707 abolished the Scots
Parliament, but not the communal base of Scottish identity. Whereas most
subjects of the Crown in the non-English parts of the United Kingdom live
easily with both a national identity and a British identity, in England there is
confusion: the terms English and British tend to be used without recognition
that England by itself is different from the United Kingdom.
Nations like classes must be understood in terms of the political
relationships between them, whether characterised by mutual benefit or by
conflict, or by both. National differences do not necessarily lead to conflicts
between nations. The persistence of the United Kingdom for centuries is
proof of that. The secession of the territory now forming the 26 counties of
the Republic of Ireland strengthened the unity of the remaining parts.
Politically, the crucial point to understand about the United Kingdom is its
continuing capacity to act as a unitary state, notwithstanding its multi
national composition.
When Westminster was an Imperial Parliament, managing territories
scattered across the globe was a major concern. Secretaries of State for
India, the Colonies, the Dominions and the Commonwealth preceded the
entry of a Secretary of State for Wales into the Cabinet. The end of the
empire has made Westminster less conscious of its responsibilities as
the central authority for diverse nations and peoples. Membership of the
European Community has yet to awaken a new consciousness of territo
rial politics. Community politics is not perceived at Westminster in terri
torial terms, but as a controversy about money and material benefits.
The Community is a bargaining arena, not a state like the United King
dom.
The primary political concerns at Westminster today are not territorial but
functional: the management of the economy and the distribution of material
benefits. Functional disagreements about health, education, pensions,
unemployment and industrial policies are endemic in modern government.
Political controversy would remain even if the whole of the United Kingdom
were reduced in territorial extent to the boundaries of the Greater London
Council. Yet there is a territorial dimension in every functional policy.
Political grievances can be articulated in territorial terms, such as complaints
about Welsh unemployment or Scottish housing. The substantive problem
remains housing or unemployment, but the demand for action is limited
territorially. The question thus arises: how are the benefits.of public policy to
be distributed throughout the United Kingdom, given differences in needs
and resources between more and less prosperous parts? Ironically, economic
differences between parts of the United Kingdom can lead to demands for
greater centralisation, for only the United Kingdom Treasury has the