Devolution

A Neofuturist play put on in January 2000, written by Neofuturist cast member Sean Benjamin. Devolution featured forty short plays about a man, E, an inmate in an asylum or a patient in a mental hospital, who thinks he's turning into an animal. In the beginning, the doctor and the nurse walk across the stage, collide, and the nurse drops and scatters forty cards with the names of the forty scenes; the order in which they were picked up was the order in which the scenes were performed. It was similar in format to the famous Neofuturist play Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, which features thirty short plays in sixty minutes and has been running since 1988. According to the Neofuturist website (http://www.neofuturists.org), Devolution was presented again for two weeks at the Department of Cultural Affairs Storefront Theater in April 2000.

I saw it in its Chicago run at the Neo-futurarium, and mostly enjoyed it. It wasn't as good as Too Much Light, but I didn't expect it to be. I was a disappointed that it all stayed on the same level and never really went anywhere, but thinking back on it now, you really can't do anything differently when you don't know what order you're going to present the scenes in. Sean Benjamin did a good job as E, although E also stayed on one level the entire time--I didn't really see much Devolution.

Devolution is the establishment of autonomous government in regions which consider themselves to have a national identity but without transferring legal sovereignty.

Basically the region in question receives an elected assembly of some kind which has the power to lay down certain laws. Legal sovereignty (the ability to make laws) still resides with the institution that devolved the power in the first place. So that institution can remove the devolution and often has kept certain areas of law making under their command (such as defence, foriegn affairs).

In Britain Devolution has been introduced in several areas and there is still debate as to whether other areas will receive devolution as well (such as the North of England and a Northern Assembly).

History of Devolution in Britain

There was movement towards devolution for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the 1970's and 1980's but due to the strong Conservative government that managed to prevail for so long, very little was done to bring in devolution. Also the Nationalist parties in the two regions of Scotland & Wales were not very vocal (if at all) and so few people ever really thought about it.

However the 1974 election brought about talk of devolution as Labour had a very weak position in Parliament. It had to concede to a referendum in Scotland for the 1st March, 1979. This referendum required 40% of the electorate to be in favour not just 40% of those who bother to vote. This meant that the referendum failed to bring in devolution, even though those who did vote were strongly in favour, because turnout was too low.

Support for devolution started to show its head in the 1987 election as well when the Conservatives lost a huge share of seats in Scotland. The Conservatives have never really recovered from this since their unionist policy rubbed against the grain of popular opinion in Scotland. Although not everyone was in favour of independence there were several reasons that increased the desire for autonomous government (see below).

In Northern Ireland, there was (and still is) some desire for complete seperation from the UK. Therefore devolution became a possible solution for the crisis that was still causing havoc on the country since it allowed the country to have governing powers as well as an elected assembly to represent the people. However, it still remains part of the UK so is not independent like Eire is. Because of the situation in Northern Ireland, the push towards devolution was faster than in other areas of the UK.

In the years between 1990-1997 there was more active movement towards devolution as the nationalist parties in Scotland (the SNP) and Wales (Plaid Cymru) became active in the public eye and so support for them started to grow. In Northern Ireland, devolution was being used as a tool in the peace process as the negotiators worked towards the Good Friday Agreement. In the end, there were a number of referendums (both in northern and southern Ireland) leading to the ratification of this agreement which meant that devolution was introduced in 1998.

Devolution wasn't going to follow for Scotland and Wales for a year or two yet. Elections for their respective Parliament and Assembly took place in 1999 and came into power in 2000.

Causes of Devolution In Scotland and Wales

The reasons for devolution can be split into two catergories:

• Economic
• Political

Economic:

• Recession in the 80's caused Scotland's economy to be hit hard. The inability to control aspects of their economy to minimise the damage caused dissent to increase (Scotland had the same tax rate etc. as England even though its economy was different). This lead to the introduction of tax varying powers when devolution finally occured.
• In Scotland during 1995 it was discovered that the standard of living (no idea how they work this out) was 3% less than the whole of the rest of the UK.
• Wales had similar problems with the economy but this was compounded by the closure of the coal mines.
• Dispute in Scotland over the use of North Sea oil.

Political:

• There had been extensive Conservative rule throughout the century yet few Conservative MPs in the House of Commons came from Scottish or Welsh seats. This meant that there was a democratic deficit. The people of Scotland and Wales were being governed by a party that they didn't vote for. This was proved in the 1997 election where the Conservatives failed to return a single seat in Scotland and the SNP gained 22% of the vote, increasing the amount of seats they had to six (that's quite good for the SNP).
• The Scots felt that they were being treated like guinea pigs when Poll tax was introduced. It was introduced in Scotland a year before anywhere else which caused many to feel that it was being tested on Scotland first.
• Increase in the support for nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales.
• Influence of the EU. The European Union has made laws which bypass central government by giving extra powers straight to local government (called subsidiarity). Wales and Scotland liked the extra powers that it received from the EU so the taste of self government was prevalent at the time.

Arguments for Devolution

• Dispersal of power to a more local level makes governing more efficient. Central government is not burdened with the work of these other regions and the regional government will have a better idea of how to implement laws to the local problems making decisions more quickly made and more efficiently carried out when made.
• Regional government will receive greater loyalty from the people. This shows both at elections where turnout should be better as well as the regional government having a better mandate from the people.
• Better at representing the people.
• Staves off nationalists who want seperation.

Arguments against Devolution

• Argued (mainly by the Conservatives) that devolution is just the thin end of the wedge of the break-up of the UK.
• Possibly very expensive to set up and maintain a two tier system of government. Since it is not complete seperation the devolved assembly will still get its money from the devolving institution. Why should people who don't live in this region pay for the region's government?
• It will also cost money to buy/build buildings, set up the administration, civil servants, electoral process etc..
• It also can make the lines of responsibility of the two tiers blurred so no one knows who to hold accountable/blame etc..
• May clash with central government over policy issues
• Erodes Parliamentary Sovereignty since Parliament would find it impossible to stop a law made by a devolved assembly short of removing the assembly alltogether. This would still retain sovereignty but the chances of a government actually daring to do that is very slim.
• see the West Lothian question.

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See also:

• Devolution in Scotland
• Devolution in Wales
• Good Friday Agreement

Dev`o*lu"tion (?), n. [LL. devolutio: cf. F. d'evolution.]

1.

The act of rolling down.

[R.]

The devolution of earth down upon the valleys. Woodward.

2.

Transference from one person to another; a passing or devolving upon a successor.

The devolution of the crown through a . . . channel known and conformable to old constitutional requisitions. De Quincey.

 

© Webster 1913.