Jonathan Bradbury

The constituency work of members of the Scottish Parliament and Assembly for Wales: approaches, relationships and rules

Abstract The Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales electoral systems created both constituency and list members. The article discusses hypotheses for exploring their behaviour and notes the particular context of regional party systems dominated to a greater or lesser extent by the Labour party. The authors find that constituency members of the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly broadly conduct more constituency work than list members, although the extent of list member is still significant for a variety of reasons. The qualitative nature of list member constituency work is not systematically different from that of constituency members. Nevertheless, there are variations in list member approaches. Constituency and list member perceptions of list member work also differ and this has become a serious source of controversy. Relationships between constituency and list members, and between devolved representatives and MPs, are competitive or co-operative, predominantly in relation to partisan interest. In both Scotland and Wales predominantly Labour constituency members have critical views of the roles of list members and have contested the rules governing constituency work. This has been alleviated to some extent by commitments to political pluralism, though more in Scotland than in Wales.

Devolution and party change: Candidate selection for the 1999 Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly elections

The article analyses the candidate selection procedures of each of the major parties in the run‐up to the 1999 Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections, assessing the extent to which they reveal developments in party democratisation and decentralisation on the one hand, and evidence of countervailing central control on the other. Procedural innovations achieved greater openness in candidate nomination and gender balance in candidatures but developments in democratisation were contested and evidence of decentralisation was mixed. Surveys of candidates reveal a perception in the Labour Party that there was too much central influence, although its implications differed in Scotland and Wales. There were perceptions of unfairness and lack of internal democracy in the other parties as well, suggesting in particular a contradiction between central influence in all of the parties’ approaches to list selection and candidates’ expectations of such influence diminishing. Devolution, therefore, released tensions in all parties.

Cadidate selection, devolution and modernisation: The selection of labour party candidates for the 1999 Scottish parliament and welsh assembly elections

Describes the selection of Labour Party candidates for the 1999 Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections.

Devolution, Regionalism and Regional Development: The UK experience

1. Introduction Jonathan Bradbury Part 1: Devolution in the UK 2. Devolution in Scotland: change and continuity Neil McGarvey 3. Devolution in Wales: an unfolding process Jonathan Bradbury 4. Northern Ireland: St Andrews - the long Good Friday Agreement Rick Wilford Part 2: Regionalism in England 5. Institutional Capacity in the English regions Graham Pearce 6. Co-ordinating governance in the South East mega-region: Towards joined-up thinking? Peter John, Steve Musson and Adam Tickell 7. Constrained discretion and English regional governance: the case of Yorkshire and the Humber Simon Lee Part 3: Regional Development in the UK 8. Devolution and development: territorial justice and the north-south divide Kevin Morgan 9. Reconstructing regional development and planning in Scotland and Wales Greg Lloyd and Deborah Peel 10. Regional development and regional spatial strategies in England Peter Roberts 11. Conclusion: UK regional capacity in comparative perspective Jonathan Bradbury and Patrick Le Gales

The political dynamics of sub-state regionalisation: a neo-functionalist perspective and the case of devolution in the UK1

The article seeks to contribute to theoretical analysis of sub-state regionalisation, particularly as applied to the study of its principal history-making developments. It argues that cross-fertilising the classic neo-functionalist perspective on European supranational regionalisation offers a profitable basis for development. The article clarifies its conceptual categories, adapting to take account of the sub-state context, and then applies the approach to devolution in the UK. Reference to this case seeks to confirm the utility of the perspective, and in the process offers a novel framework for clarifying the common and distinctive political dynamics of devolution across the UK.

Constituency Service in Multi-level Democracies

Abstract What are the patterns of legislator responsiveness to constituents in multi-level democracies, and what explains them? Previously, comparative research has been hampered by a lack of theory and a lack of data. The article first theorizes how constituency service may be explained by conventional arguments, such as electoral motivations and role orientations. It then considers how regionalization specifically might affect service responsiveness. Using data from the PARTIREP survey of legislators in eight multi-level democracies and six unitary democracies, the article demonstrates that national legislators devote less time to constituency service in multi-level than in unitary democracies; and that regional legislators devote more time than national legislators in multi-level democracies. While conventional arguments are important, the specific effects of regionalization are also significant in determining service responsiveness, establishing an agenda for future research of constituency service as a significant area in the study of multi-level democracy.

The state of two nations: An analysis of voting in the Scottish parliament and welsh assembly elections 1999

The following article compares and contrasts the elections for the recently devolved Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales.

The effectiveness of legislative mechanisms for the devolution of powers in the UK: the case of transport devolution to Wales

The authors consider the effectiveness of legislative mechanisms for devolving state powers on an incremental basis in the UK. There has been considerable critical debate about how these have worked but there have been few detailed studies. This article analyses the case of UK transport devolution to Wales in 2005–06 and finds mixed evidence. While the legislative process was ultimately advantageous to effective policy devolution as perceived both by central and devolved government, it also highlighted the problems of dependency on UK legislative discretion.

The European Union and the Contested Politics of ‘Ever Closer Union’: Approaches to Integration, State Interests and Treaty Reform since Maastricht

Abstract The 1992 Maastricht Treaty on European Union made major commitments to economic and monetary union as well as to political reform culminating in the objective of an ‘ever closer union’. Since Maastricht there have been a series of intergovernmental councils focused on building on these objectives. Discussions have led to the Amsterdam Treaty (1997), the Nice Treaty (2001), the failed constitutional treaty (2004), and the Lisbon Treaty (2007). The paper first clarifies the achievements that resulted in the 1992 Treaty on European Union; secondly, it explores the ‘community method’ approach, intrinsic to the reforms at Amsterdam and Nice; and, thirdly, it examines the attempt at a more ‘constitutional’ approach to completing European Union during the 2000s, and the problems that this has faced. The paper argues that whilst integration strategies to achieve ‘ever closer union’ have been shaped by the need to respond to perceived collective ‘European’ challenges, developments in practice have been influenced by the assertion of different ‘nation’ state interests and contested visions of what ‘ever closer union’ should comprise. This respect for the diversity of state interests may be seen as a strength as European integration both deepens and widens, particularly in taking in Central East European states. On the other hand, the inability of the EU to offer a clear model of political development may yet squander the opportunity not only for the EU to achieve a coherent and consensual ‘ever closer union’ but also to show leadership and play a unifying role across the continent.

The Blair Government, Devolution and Regionalism in the United Kingdom

One of the principal reforms introduced by the Blair governments was the devolution of power from Westminster to elected institutions representing the UK’s territorial nations and regions: a Parliament for Scotland (1999), an assembly for Wales (1999) and an assembly for Northern Ireland (1998). At the same time in England, the Blair governments established regional development agencies in all nine regions (1999). In London this was accompanied by an elected Greater London Authority (2000), although elsewhere a purely administrative regionalism developed. The chapter seeks to review the significance of this major series of innovations to the Blair legacy. Section one provides a historical context to reform. Section two considers the approaches adopted in introducing devolution and regional reform over the period 1997–2007. Section three then considers the implications of devolution and regional reform for UK territorial politics, judged from competing theoretical perspectives.