Reading this Samizdata quote of the day got me thinking about why devolution in the UK has been a general disappointment and source of endless annoyance.
I remember when arguments were originally made for devolution, commentators would claim that devolution would work in the same way that the federal structure of the US works, or, for that matter, how the cantonal system works in Switzerland. By which they meant that if a state such as Zug in Switzerland or Wisconsin in the US tried a specific policy (encouraging cryptos, or enacting Workfare, to take two actual examples), that the perceived success or failure of these policies would be studied by other cantons and states. Hence the idea that devolution allows a sort of “laboratory experiment” of policy to take place. It creates a virtuous kind of competition. That’s the theory.
What seems to have happened is that since devolution in the UK, Scotland, Wales and to some extent, Northern Ireland, have competed with England in who can be the most statist, authoritarian and in general, be the biggest set of fools. Whether it is 20 mph speed limits spreading to many places and harsh lockdowns (Wales) or minimum pricing on booze and “snitching” on your own family for views about gender (Scotland), the Celtic fringe appears to be more interested in being more oppressive, rather than less. I cannot think of a single issue in which the devolved governments of the UK have been more liberal, and more respectful, of liberty under the rule of law. (Feel free to suggest where I am mistaken.)
One possible problem is that because the UK’s overall government holds considerable budgetary power, the devolved bits of the UK don’t face the consequences of feckless policy to the extent necessary to improve behaviour.
Even so, I don’t entirely know why the Scots and Welsh have taken this turn and I resist the temptation to engage in armchair culture guessing about why they tend to be more collectivist at present. It was not always thus. Wales has been a bastion of a kind of liberalism, fused to a certain degree with non-conformity in religion, and Scotland had both the non-conformist thing, and the whole “enlightment” (Smith, Hume, Ferguson, etc) element. At some point, however, that appears to have stopped. Wales became a hotbed of socialism in the 20th century, in part due to the rise of organised labour in heavy industry, and then the whole folklore – much of it sentimental bullshit – about the great achievements in healthcare of Nye Bevan. Scotland had its version of this, plus the resentments about Mrs Thatcher and the decline of Scotland as a manufacturing power.
I like visiting Wales – I went to Anglesey last weekend and loved it – and the same goes for Scotland. I can only go on personal observations in saying that I enjoy my trips there, and I have some family links to Scotland on my mother’s side. (My wife has some links to Wales.). But for whatever reason, the political culture of both places is, to varying degrees, absolutely horrible.
Maybe the “test lab” force of devolution will play a part in demonstrating that, as and when we get a Labour government for the whole of the UK, it will be a shitshow on a scale to put what has happened in the Celtic parts of the UK in the shade.
I think the meaning of “devolve” has been stretched a bit, to encompass colonialism.
When I think of devolution, I think of an insulation of local politics and preferences, protecting them from the national trends – the empowerment of the local desire over the larger national one. I do think of the “many different experiments” idea as being a good argument for true devolution.
But what we see now (in the U.S., at least) isn’t so much devolution as colonialism.
Our current trend in so-called “devolution” is simply to send hordes of deputies of the national powers out across the land to operate in the local spheres, to control the locals much more than to empower them.
We are decidedly NOT moving in a devolved direction.
It’s not a disappointment to me. The whole thing from the start was a New Labour wheeze from the start. It was shit from day one, and remains shit now. Almost all (maybe all of it!) of the post 1997 constitutional change has been botched at best or just downright malevolent.
As far as the U.S. is concerned, the “laboratory experiment” idea seems to be dead. While places like Texas and Florida bloom, New York and California fade. It never seems to occur to NY or CA that they are doing something wrong.
Even though thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of their citizens relocate to less authoritarian parts of the country, they just never get the message. They simply double down on their authoritarian cow pies.
I wish the idea did work, but it doesn’t. Another *wonderful* theory hits the ash heap of history!
Wales has proved it’s possible to get away with 20mph speed limits without the torches and pitchforks coming out; Scotland has pushed a long way down the road to the complete removal of free speech and today is apparently setting out to test the abolition of jury trials.
From the perspective of those who set the system up, the experiments are going surprisingly well.
Loudlight: The idea does work, insofar as it enables Texas and Florida to avoid the follies of California, to resist them, and even to develop policies further away from them. For another example, Utah has passed a law protecting “free range parenting.” Having some experiments utterly fail is part of the process.
The first part of the British Isles to get devolved government, the Irish Free State, rapidly turned into a profoundly authoritarian theocratic failed state that within 30 years tottered on the edge of complete demographic collapse. Having slide from the poorest area of the richest country in Europe to being one of the poorest areas in Europe.
So no surprise that another devolved regional government led by yet another Massive Inferiority Complex Nationalism political party turns out to be corrupt, deeply authoritarian and totally incompetent. Wasting immense amounts of tax-payers money.
It was always going to turn out this way. The rational used by Gladstone to foist Home Rule on the nation and cause such immense harm up to this day was just as profoundly stupid as anything Blair said to justify Scottish Devolution.
I cannot think of a single issue in which the devolved governments of the UK have been more liberal, and more respectful, of liberty under the rule of law. (Feel free to suggest where I am mistaken.)
Which is why you should be thankful for your federal system where Scots, horrified with what Scotland has become, can take off and live in England and avoid the worst of it. Which is the whole point — federalism gives you more choices.
Maybe the “test lab” force of devolution will play a part in demonstrating that, as and when we get a Labour government for the whole of the UK, it will be a shitshow on a scale to put what has happened in the Celtic parts of the UK in the shade.
I imagine you are right. Costa Rica is very nice I hear.
@bobby b
Our current trend in so-called “devolution” is simply to send hordes of deputies of the national powers out across the land to operate in the local spheres, to control the locals much more than to empower them.
Which reminds me of my favorite line from the Declaration of Independence, complaining about British administration and King George:
Plus ça change.
The laboratory experiment aspect of federalism doesn’t work like it was intended, but it does work… albeit slowly. (The separate governing bodies don’t pay THAT much attention to what works/doesn’t elsewhere, except on certain topics. We see like-minded legislatures following each other’s examples: gun laws are a good example on both sides of the issue.) What is happening more slowly, is that as populations shift between these states, their character changes. Blue becomes more blue, red more red. The lessons learned by individual’s subject to those states’ laws is fueling the increasing divide, which is against what the founders hoped.
Isn’t the problem that additional layers of government were added without anything that those layers might have replaced being removed? Just adding more government hangers on to boss you around without actually giving them anything to do other than boss you around is a surefire way to end up getting bossed around. The British Parliament should have become the English Parliament with the appropriate reduction in MPs. The Northern Irish, Scots and Welsh Assemblies would then at least have had some actual work to do.
The Westminster Government in England hasn’t provided an example of how an alternative vision might be superior. The Conservatives are just as fascist as the Socialists. For example, Michael Gove’s promise to prohibit Section 21 recovery of possession by landlords.
Give a political body more authority and control over local matters and they will use it to intervene in issues where ‘something must be done’ whether it needs doing or not, if only to demonstrate their ‘difference’. More intervention means more government control (see Ludwig von Mises) and greater collectivisation, and that leads to greater socialism and tyranny.
That ‘something must be done’ is usually driven by local special interest groups is also a cause of disproportionate reaction.
Some observations on American devolution:
1. LoudLight:
It never seems to occur to NY or CA that they are doing something wrong. Even though thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of their citizens relocate
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Not a bug, but a feature for the Democratic political machines that control these cities. Underclass and on the dole = reliable Dem voter. The use of “socially progressive” populist handouts to create a dependent underclass – and encourage middle-class flight to suburbs to escape high taxation – has been going on in these cities since the mid-19th century. Until now the Big City offered opportunities and attractions that balanced out the poverty and crime, drew the young and immigrants, and kept (taxable) commerce flowing through.
Dems lived in carefully guarded, well-serviced urban enclaves or suburbs – but were able to pride themselves on their progressive welfare-state bona fides.
All this has now fallen apart – geographical proximity to the city is no longer the must-have commodity it once was, so people and businesses are leaving. Modern immigration bypasses the old urban slums and flows directly to suburban or rural areas. The Dems have yet to reckon with this.
2. What we see now is not the devolution originally conceived by the US Constitution. A permanent Federal civil service started to grow after the Civil War, and Wilsonian statism and New-Deal progressivism of the 19-20th centuries created the alphabet soup of Federal monetary, regulatory, and administrative agencies that now concentrate enormous power at the Federal level.
3. I am certain there is a cultural aspect to this… although the UK was the source of fierce American independence – and is probably still the closest thing to that in Europe – it has been wimpified by several decades of Western European “social-democrat” stuff…. as in the USA some social welfare programs and attitudes are by now ineradicable. The ratchet only ever moves Leftward.
New York and California are vote sinks for democrats now. I have heard that many New Yorkers/Californians leave the states but take their blue state politics with them to wherever they go next. There maybe some Machiavellian sense in this. They have ‘excess’ democrat voters in certain states, better to get some to move to shore up the democrat vote where they don’t already have huge majorities. Of course the risk is some will be so alienated by what they see in New York/California etc that they become Republicans. But I do wonder how many genuinely re-evaluate their political allegiances.
William H Stoddard: The idea does work, insofar as it enables Texas and Florida to avoid the follies of California, to resist them, and even to develop policies further away from them. For another example, Utah has passed a law protecting “free range parenting.” Having some experiments utterly fail is part of the process.
Exactly. The key is that people can flee crap polities. The problem, of course, is when people who do so bring their bad ideas with them. This is why Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds likes to refer to the idea of a “welcome wagon” for those moving to a new place to “orientate” them on how to behave, such as not bellyaching about carrying firearms, etc.
Martin: I do wonder how many genuinely re-evaluate their political allegiances.
I guess it depends on how traumatic the move was. People fleeing communism (Cuba in the 60s and 70s, Eastern Europe, parts of Asia) often became ardent conservatives/genuine liberals. Korean shopkeepers are Republicans, as are Vietnamese boat people. Cubans, at least first and second gens, are similar. However, I notice for example how people moving from cities to rural areas can try and bring certain attitudes with them, and this can get uncomfortable. In my homeland of Suffolk, this can happen a bit, although it is quite subtle.
Northern Ireland shows that when an Assembly does not agree to the “Woke” (Critical Theory Marxist) agenda – it gets imposed anyway, by the courts and so on.
As for tax rates, Covid lockdowns, and so on…..
In practice the Scottish Parliament (and so on) only want more statism – never less statism. Harsher Covid lockdowns, higher taxes, more crushing of Freedom of Speech, and so on.
In theory a Reactionary majority could be elected in Scotland or Wales – but that is so unlikely that it was never really seriously considered. That “devolution” might lead to less statism rather than more statism was not a possibility that was seriously considered by anyone – as, in a British context, “devolution” leading to LESS statism is impossible (it can only lead to more statism).
It would be like being a County Councilor in England and saying “I think we should increase the Council Tax by LESS than 4.9%” – with spending being mostly on “demand led services” (translation – democratically elected councilors have no real control over most spending) even the most “right wing” colleagues would laugh at any councilor who suggested NOT increasing Council Tax by 4.9%. The budget meetings and so on continue to happen (indeed there are more meetings and paperwork than ever before) but “democracy” has, PARTLY, become a ritual (or rather series of rituals) rather than than a reality.
It is true that Mr Peter Hitchens insists that democracy remains a reality – but he has never been elected to anything (if he was elected he would be in for a shock). Certainly an elected councilor can have some influence on some things – but the idea that elected people are “in charge” is an overstatement in the British context. One only need remember what happened to Prime Minister Liz Truss, or to Jacob Rees-Mogg (the minister for the Civil Service – who found he had no real power over it).
Still I thank Johnathan Pearce for reminding us that, to some extent, Federalism still exists in the United States.
Taxes really are lower in some States, and some States said NO to a Covid lockdown.
British people proudly (and largely correctly) say “unlike the United States – elections are NOT rigged here” – but a cynic might reply “why bother to rig elections in the United Kingdom?” – true this would be OVER cynical – but there would be a grain of truth in such a cynical response.
@BenDavid
geographical proximity to the city is no longer the must-have commodity it once was…
What we see now is not the devolution originally conceived by the US Constitution. A permanent Federal civil service started to grow after the Civil War, and Wilsonian statism and New-Deal progressivism of the 19-20th centuries created the alphabet soup of Federal monetary, regulatory, and administrative agencies that now concentrate enormous power at the Federal level.
I thought your comments were spot on BenDavid, but I picked these out as particularly significant. America has become less and less of a federal system and more and more of the power is centralized. It is ironic that the people who are utterly undermining federalism by centralizing power are called “the feds”.
And this is particularly bitter since modern technology has made it much easier for people to take advantage of federalism since they are less tied down to their current location. If anything good came out of Covid lockdowns it was a shocking revelation of how little information workers actually have to be in the office. Companies are beginning to grudgingly accept this, though there is still a residual “one day a week in the office” thing. This utterly undermines much of the benefit of remote work. If I am a stock broker in NYC or an accountant in Chicago, and I work entirely remotely, I can move to Kansas or Florida or Costa Rica. But if I have to go in one day a week it dramatically reduces my choices.
Whether this is coincidence or design or a bit of both I don’t know, but what I do know is that competition in government is a very useful tool, and modern technology really helps facilitate it. Yet the governments of the world, like monopolies and cartels everywhere, are doing everything they can to prevent competition — even with cartelized “minimum tax rates” being agreed internationally. I’m reminded of that classic piece of wisdom from Adam Smith:
Given the iron grip of the left over American education (the schools and universities) and the media (including the entertainment media), and their control over Credit Money (the only form of money that exists now – the monetary and financial system is an abomination) which means control of the corporations, and the vast demographic change the United States is undergoing (especially among the young – the future). there would seem to be little hope even for what are presently “Red States” (which in the baffling modern language means anti socialist States).
But little hope is not no hope. For example, perhaps Hispanics in the United States will come to the conclusion that Hispanics in Argentina did – and turn against the Collectivists.
It is worth noting that Donald John Trump has more Hispanic (and more black) support than most Republicans – perhaps because of his blunt way of speaking.