The Practice of Government in a Devolved Scotland: The Case of the Designation of the Cairngorms National Park

Abstract

Introduction: the political rationalities of devolution Writing in The Economist in 1996, Tony Blair set out the case for constitutional change in terms of its potential to bring about``democracy's second age''. As part of an ambition to build a`partnership' between politicians and the people, Blair set out plans for a series of reforms aimed at securing democratic renewal. Prominent in this reform programme was political devolution for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, administrative devolution in England, and the creation of an elected London Assemblyösubsequently enacted in Labour's first term of office (1997^2001). This was followed by (unsuccessful) plans for political devolution in England being put forward in Labour's second term (2001^05). Blair was not alone in constructing devolution as a means of developing a more democratic Britain. The democratising thesis has been outlined at length in the campaigning literature alongside identity, economic, and administrative imperatives (see, for example, Campaign for the English Regions, 2005; Humphrey and Tomaney, 2002; Scottish Constitutional Convention, 1988). Although the call for democracy has an immediate and incontrovertible appeal, the precise ways in which devolution is potentially democratising are myriad and complexöranging from holding the`quangocracy' to account, through new scrutinising structures (Morgan and Mungham, 2000), to getting ordinary people more engaged through reforming the manner in which politics is conducted (Hassan and Warhurst, 2000). The chance to involve a broader constituency of interests in politics and policymaking is, therefore, one of several ways in which devolution is argued to promote democratisation. According to devolutionists, this enhanced involvement can be achieved in specific ways. These include a greater openness in the political system and a willingness to include`civil society' in the day-today business of policy development. In short, devolution contains the possibility of a commitment to a more participatory politics. In this paper I treat the claim that devolution can result in democratic renewal in this way as a particular`political rationality'. In using the term`political rationality' I draw on the work of Rose and Miller (1992), who defined the term as the way in which

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