Devolution & Territorial Politics

The Constitution Unit has been closely involved with the development of devolution policy in the UK for over a decade. In 1996 we produced three major reports, on Scotland's Parliament, An Assembly for Wales, and Regional Government for England, which provided detailed blueprints for the new Labour Government elected in 1997. We were also involved in the design of the Scottish Parliament (Single Chamber Parliaments), and in auditing the Scottish Parliament (Realising the Vision) and Northern Ireland Assembly (A Democratic Design?) at the end of their first year.

Projects | Publications | Monitor Articles | Events | Other

Research Projects

Current Research Projects:

The major ongoing devolution project managed by the Constitution Unit is the Devolution Monitoring Programme, which comprises five research teams across the UK producing reports three times a year into developments in devolution policy and the institutions of devolution. As part of this exercise, the Unit also holds an annual conference Inside Devolution and publishes the regular State of the Nations devolution yearbook series.

The Unit is actively involved in national and international networks of researchers, through its membership of the International Association of Centres for Federal Studies, British Politics Group of APSA, British and Comparative Territorial Politics Group of the Political Studies Association, and European Consortium for Political Research.

Past devolution projects:

Parliamentary Scrutiny of Multi-Level Governance (2006)
Evaluation of the role and impact of Regional Chambers (2003-05)
Multi-Tier Politics and its Impact on Local Representation (2002-05)
How the Law and Devolution Disputes Shape the Devolution Settlement (2001-04)
Monitoring devolution through four territorial networks of 40 expert observers (2000-05)
Scottish Independence (2000-02)
Devolution and the English Regions
Devolution Monitoring Programme (1999-2005)
The Dynamics of Devolution (1999-2005)
Devolution and Health (1999-2003)
Breaking the mould: the UK’s New Assemblies (1999-2001)

Publications

All Constitution Unit publications: Devolution
All devolution monitoring reports
Report for the Commission on Scottish Devolution (December 2008)
Chapters on Scotland and Wales, Intergovernmental relations and finance, Northern Ireland, the English Question and the Future of Britishness in Constitutional Futures Revisited (November 2008)

Monitor articles

Monitor 38 (January 2008) Scotland: Toward a New Settlement?
Monitor 36 (May 2007) Special Supplement: Scottish and Welsh Elections 2007: Towards a New Devolution Settlement?
Monitor 35 (January 2007) The Union under Strain
Monitor 31 (September 2005) Welsh Devolution: The next steps
Monitor 29 (January 2005) Elected regions hit the buffers
Monitor 23 (June 2003) Rainbow Parliament in Scotland
Monitor 19 (June 2002) Regional Rejig
Monitor 13 (December 2000) The State and the Nations
Monitor 11 (June 2000) Legistaltive Logjam
Monitor 10 (March 2000) Devolution Hots Up
Monitor 8 (September 1999) Unit Wins £1m Grant for Devolution Programme
Monitor 7 (June 1999) Devolution Dawns
Monitor 4 (September 1998) Year Two: Home Office takes the lead

Events

Conference: Inside Devolution 2008: The Second Annual Constitution Conference on Devolution (May 2008)
Seminar: The Role of Regional Ministers in England Ben Bradshaw MP, Minister of State for Health & Government Minister for the South West Region (May 2008)
Seminar: Options short of independence: Pushing the boundaries in Scotland and Canada Prof Guy Laforest, Université Laval, Canada and Prof James Mitchell, Universitity of Strathclyde (June 2007)
Seminar: Into the third term: the new governments in Scotland and Wales Peter Jones, The Scotsman and Martin Shipton, Western Mail (May 2007)
Seminar: The English Question event in the House of Lords (June 2006)

Other

IACFS conference paper: Centralised Power and Decentralised Politics in the Devolved UK (29.09.08)
Comment: Kosovo’s Declaration of Independence: The Lessons for Scotland by Simon James (26.08.08)
Constitutional Affairs Select Committee Inquiry into Devolution (February 2007)
Recommended Reading on Devolution

This page last modified 3 November, 2009 by v.spence@ucl.ac.uk