The notion of devolution is the decentralisation of power from central government to local level and can be defined vaguely by Tim Bale “transfer of competences from national to subnational government” (Bale, 2017, p. 43). Peter Leyland, a key political scientist, summarises devolution perfectly in that “territorial governments” (Leyland, 2011, p. 267) are created when power is given to regions from core governments. This can be perceived as a positive or a negative effect on the central government. This response shall explore Rhodes’ theory of “hollowing out the state,” how devolution has created political problems and how local issues have affected the central government. Each point shall be critiqued to see how the core government is affected by devolution. Additionally, two countries’ situations shall be explored in depth: The United Kingdom (UK) and Spain specifically the Catalonia region. Overall, this essay shall argue that devolution has negatively affected the core government.
The notion of “hollowing out the state” was introduced by R.A.W. Rhodes, a political scientist, in 1999 in one of his works. He believed that the state was giving more power to regions such as Scotland and institutions such as the European Union (EU) which clearly indicates that power is no longer being concentrated centrally in the core government. Rhodes believed that this happened for several reasons: “economic depression and economic pressures,” ideological change amongst the political right, “Europeanization,” “public disenchantment,” “international management fashions” and “information technology” (Rhodes, 1997, p. 88). Rhodes’ theory has also been supported by other theorists such as Convery and Lundberg who have stated that Conservatives have pushed for further decentralisation of power “to reduce the size of the British state and promote fiscal responsibility” (Convery, 2017, p. 390). This point can be further enhanced by Minto, Hunt, Keating and McGowan as they believed that devolution was “a step-change” (Rachel Minto, 2016, p. 180) for the UK in 1997 as Tony Blair made such significant changes with the establishment of the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly. Also, the Northern Irish Assembly was established in 1998 under the Good Friday Agreement providing further representation in the region. Furthermore, the size of the British state was reduced when the UK decided to join the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973. However, one could argue that power has been dragged back towards the core government in terms of devolution of power towards Northern Ireland as the coalition of parties have been incapable of forming a government in Stormont since 2011 due to disagreement between Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). The government is currently being run by the civil service without an executive and so the civil service has to make key decisions for the whole region without any guidance from politicians apart from Karen Bradley, the current Secretary for Northern Ireland. Peter Shirlow, a political theorist, describes the situation in Northern Ireland perfectly by emphasising there is “little space” (Shirlow, 2017, p. 392) for progression and development at Stormont. Therefore, this has negatively affected the core government as Karen Bradley has to guide the civil service and aide them in making key decisions instead of a government being formed in Stormont. This can be further backed up by the situation in Catalonia in Spain where power has been dragged back to the core government after the “illegal” referendum in 2017 where the population of Catalonia attempted to gain independence from Spain. This resulted in the devolved government collapsing and parliament being dissolved with Carlos Puigdemont, the Catalonian Head of Government, fleeing to Belgium to seek political asylum. The Spanish government had no control over Catalonia to the extent that the Police Commissioner was arrested for violating their code of conduct and authority as the regional police force protected Catalonian voters from the national police force. This independence debate has affected the core government greatly and this can be shown by political theorist, Nathalie Duclos, who stated that the government have “repeatedly brought the matter before the Spanish Constitutional Court” (Duclos, 2015, p. 1). Overall, it can be concluded from this point that devolution negatively affects the core government Rhodes’ “hollowing out the state” has clearly been undermined as shown by the political situation in Northern Ireland and Catalonia.
Another reason as to how devolution is not being so successful for core governments is due to political problems. This has been evident with the UK’s current situation with the EU. Article 50 was activated from the UK’s constitution after the result of the 2016 referendum of which 52% of the UK voted to revoke Britain’s membership of the EU. Until then, devolution was relatively successful as the people of Britain had a say in European politics with the election of members from the UK to the European Parliament in Brussels. Now, power is arguably being dragged back into the central government as a proportion of the UK wanted to “regain independence” from the EU. This can be backed up political scientists: Graham Gee, Luca Rubini and Martin Trybus who declared that “’Brexit’ is clearly intended to regain sovereignty” and for “UK independence” (Graham Gee, 2016, p. 6). On the one hand, this can be seen as a positive outcome for the government as they can make important decisions instead of the EU making them for the government. However, this could also be seen as a disadvantage as a new deal with the EU has to be created and so devolution is put at risk with other countries. According to Derek Birrell and Ann Mari Gray, “the Westminster government has jurisdiction over EU affairs…most social policy powers are devolved matters” (Gray, 2017, p. 766). Even though this statement is true, these powers will now be dragged back into the central government meaning that the UK government will have more issues to deal with instead of the EU resolving these issues. Clearly this will negatively affect the UK. One could also say giving power to the EU prevents the UK from making its own decisions as it is influenced by EU law so ultimately sovereignty remains in the EU. Also due to the referendum result, Northern Ireland are becoming increasingly frustrated with the Draft Brexit Deal due to the uncertainty over whether there will be a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Moreover, Scotland is threatening to organise a second independence referendum from the UK as the population would prefer to remain a member of the EU. 62% of the those who voted in 2016 EU referendum voted to remain as a member of the European Union and this could enhance Scotland’s argument for another independence referendum as they want to remain part of the EU which creates a problem for devolution as Scotland are unwilling to continue being part of the UK which would greatly affect the core government. Similarly, in Spain, its core government has been greatly affected as the country has a failing economy and a high rate of unemployment. This was instigated by the economic crisis between 2007 and 2008. According to political theorists, Philipp Engler and Mathias Klein, the difficulties in Spain were caused by the EU implementing “a fiscal consolidation process as part of a unified European effort” (Klein, 2017, p. 89). According to Alison E Weston, “regions do not participate directly in European decision-making on many areas including agriculture, fisheries, industry, economic and spatial planning, transport and the environment, which are within their competence” (Weston, 1997, p. 19) which is evidently a disadvantage for Spain as they do not have an input in key departments meaning devolution has had a negative effect upon the core government. Overall, it can be concluded that devolution has a negative impact on the core government