The New Sub-National Politics of the British Labour Party

Laffin, Martin; Shaw, Eric; Taylor, Gerald R.

doi:10.1177/1354068806071265

Cited by 49 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…There, the parties also act in multilevel settings (Deschouwer, 2003), so that one could analyse whether the policy positions of social democratic parties in these countries also differ between the regional and national levels and, secondly, if the policy goals of governments led by social democratic parties diverge significantly from the positions mentioned in the government's policy agreement (see e.g. Laffin et al ., 2007).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unfulfilled Promises? German Social Democrats and their Policy Positions at the Federal and State Level between 1994 and 2006

Debus

2008

Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unfulfilled Promises? German Social Democrats and their Policy Positions at the Federal and State Level between 1994 and 2006

Debus

2008

Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties

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“…The potential for internal conflict in parties represented at several territorial levels has been a common topic in research on multi-level parties, including devolution in Britain (Holmes 2007;Laffin et al 2007). It has also been a topic in research at the European level (Gaffney 1996).…”

Section: The Stratarchical and The Unitary Party: Two Rival Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-level Parties in Process: Scottish and Welsh MEPs and their Home Parties

Bratberg¹

2010

West European Politics

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Regional autonomy and European integration present national institutions with a double challenge, potentially diluting national authority from both below and above. The interaction between the two processes adds a particular dynamic, as when regions forge direct links to the EU bypassing the nation state. This article looks at three British parties from that perspective, focusing on the autonomy of party branches in Scotland and Wales in relation to their Members of the European Parliament. The empirical analysis confirms that devolution has enhanced the potential for regional autonomy in the parties. However, this has had little practical effect on European policy-making, where national unity prevails. The limited effect of devolution can be explained, first, by the hegemonic status of national party unity and, second, by the disadvantages of operating alone in the European Parliament. An interesting parallel can be drawn to the way subnational authorities relate to EU institutions.Regional autonomy and European integration present national institutions with a double challenge, potentially diluting their authority from both below and above. Britain is an instructive example. Here, the political power of London has been constrained by regionalisation in the form of devolution to the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales since 1999. 1 In the same period, policies emanating from the European Union have continued to permeate both national and regional politics (Bache 2008). Devolution implies a new set of opportunity structures at the regional level, changing the terrain in which political parties operate. The research question discussed in this paper is whether devolution has also enabled regional party branches to obtain more autonomy from the state-wide parties in European policy-making. Such autonomy should be visible in enhanced discretion over the selection of candidates and programmes as well as in the forging of direct links to the EU level. British parties are particularly relevant in this regard since Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) since 1999 have been elected on a regional basis, using

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“…The sub‐state branches of state‐wide parties have seen their decision‐making autonomy over devolved elections and policy‐making enhanced to varying degrees. Yet, in Scotland and Wales, these parties retain a deep sense of identification with and commitment to the state‐wide party (Laffin et al. 2007; Fabre 2008; Bradbury 2009; Detterbeck and Hepburn 2010).…”

Section: Intergovernmental Relations After Devolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…these parties retain a deep sense of identification with and commitment to the state-wide party (Laffin et al 2007;Fabre 2008;Bradbury 2009;Detterbeck and Hepburn 2010).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Intergovernmental Relations in the UK: Continuity in a Time of Change?

McEwen

Swenden

Bolleyer

2012

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

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Party political incongruence in the UK after 2007 has had a moderate effect on both the machinery of intergovernmental relations and the dominant modes of intergovernmental interaction. In assessing changes in intergovernmental structures, we find more frequent meetings and more formalised interactions. A preference for informal bilateral exchange, however, still prevails. In assessing changes in the nature of intergovernmental relations, we find some intensification of conflict, but amid continued co‐operation. While one might find more pronounced changes after longer periods of party political incongruence, we argue that the limited effect observed thus far can be traced back to: (i) formal‐legal features of the UK multi‐level polity; (ii) the nature of the policy sectors requiring intergovernmental co‐ordination (iii); the specific political dynamics within the constituent governments; and (iv) the mitigating role and structure of non‐elected institutions such as the civil service and the judiciary.

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The New Sub-National Politics of the British Labour Party

Cited by 49 publications

References 13 publications

Unfulfilled Promises? German Social Democrats and their Policy Positions at the Federal and State Level between 1994 and 2006

Unfulfilled Promises? German Social Democrats and their Policy Positions at the Federal and State Level between 1994 and 2006

Multi-level Parties in Process: Scottish and Welsh MEPs and their Home Parties

Intergovernmental Relations in the UK: Continuity in a Time of Change?

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