Institutional Identities and the Shifting Scales of State Governance in the United Kingdom

Abstract

In recent years, organizations of state governance within the United Kingdom have undergone a fundamental change in scale. The creation of a Scottish Parliament, and Welsh, Northern Irish and London Assemblies, along with the devolution of power to Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) in England, has signalled a substantial territorial refocusing of the scales of political and economic power within the UK state. In this paper, I argue that Storper’s (1997: 268) distinction between institutions - in other words, customary, and sometimes informal rules of practice between groups and individuals - and more formal organizations - which relate to far more programmed and prescriptive political and administrative forms - is useful to study such processes. I suggest that it is imperative for these new bureaucracies of governance, along with their representatives, to undergo an institutional, as well as an organizational, change if they are to become key elements within the British political economy. I contextualize the processes occurring within the contemporary British state by exploring some of the crucial changes which happened during another important period of state restructuring in the United Kingdom, namely the early modern period. In this context, Braddick (1991) has forcefully argued that the centralization of state power which occurred during this earlier period was successful precisely because it also involved a change in informal institutions, as the identities and loyalties of the key bureaucratic officers in the localities gradually became more aligned with the English state. Using some brief vignettes from the contemporary UK state, I suggest that the loyalties and institutional identities of the key officers of state within the new regional bodies - politicians and civil servants, for instance - also need to change if these new organizations are to become truly effective means of governance.

Filling in’ the State: Economic Governance and the Evolution of Devolution in Wales

“…Actually to implement it, and make sure they are all working [is difficult], you've got all this fear because each of them, I guess, are jealous of their own work; we've got to get over that, so that they can see that they are not threatening each other ... it's hard work doing that, but we are doing quite a good job through [the economic forum], but there is still a long way to go on it.'' Finally, we should not underestimate the significance of territorial identities for the development of this common Welsh agendum for change (on a broader note see R Jones, 2001;Paasi, 1991;. Devolution, in particular, has created a new ethos of spatial governance in which state personnel are seen to be`trying to do something for Wales'.…”

“…In this way, we illustrate the extent to which the creation of ELWa, and indeed the whole process of devolution, has led to a shift in the working practices and territorial allegiances of state personnel. In other words, we are concerned with the development of particular forms of social capital in Wales that can serve to enliven the efforts of the various individuals working to increase its economic prosperity (see Coleman, 1988;R Jones, 2001;Jones et al, 2004;Putnam, 1993; see also Mawson and Spencer, 1997).…”

“…It is less clear whether devolution has also been characterised by a progress of institutional change, in which informal rules of practice, cultural norms, and political loyalties become increasingly sedimented at a regional scale. This second aspect of devolution is crucial as it alludes to the potential for working practices and, in a related context, notions of social capital to invigorate organisations of governance, or alternatively to make them work more effectively (see R Jones, 2001). The process of filling in that has characterised devolution in the United Kingdom has, we maintain, had the potential to have been played out in both of these contexts.…”

Exploring the correspondence between regional forms of governance and regional identity: The case of Western Europe

“…However, contrary to what also maintained by many neo-liberal authors about a borderless and de-territorialised world (O' Brien, 1992;Ohmae, 1993), the state has obviously not disappeared. It has simply transformed itself, by denationalising its scalar structure and by privileging alternative levels of regulatory intervention and capital valorisation, among which the regional scale acquires primary importance (Jones, 2001;Jessop, 2007).…”

Devolution, State Personnel, and the Production of New Territories of Governance in the United Kingdom

“…Described at various times as Tony Blair's`placeman' and`poodle' (see, for instance, Speed, 2000), Michael's image was that of a tame First Minister,`parachuted' in late in the campaign for the Labour nomination for the role of First Minister (Betts, 2000). This example illustrates a more popular concern regarding the perceived commitment, or otherwise, of various state personnel to the devolution project (see Jones, 2001).…”