Last Word: The Scottish Parliament at 20
| Published date | 01 December 2019 |
| Date | 01 December 2019 |
| Author | Peter Lynch,Emily St. Denny |
| DOI | 10.1177/2041905819891375 |
40 POLITICAL INSIGHT • DECEMBER 2019
Opening the new Scottish Parliament
in 1999, First Minister Donald
Dewar declared that it was “the day
when democracy was renewed
in Scotland”. Twenty years on, has the Scottish
Parliament lived up to its original expectations?
The reinstatement of the Scottish Parliament–
in abeyance since the Treaty of the Union
in 1707 – followed a long-running, if often
intermittent, campaign. A major turning
point was the establishment of the Scottish
Constitutional Convention (SCC) in 1989 to
reinvigorate the push for Scottish devolution.
The SCC’s vision wove a narrative of ‘new
Scottish politics’, in which the re-establishment
of a parliament in Scotland was strongly
associated with notions of democratic renewal.
This vision stood in stark contrast to the
putatively outdated and regressive orthodoxy
represented by ‘old’ Westminster: majoritarian,
centralising, impositional and elitist.
Devolution and ‘new politics’ would resolve
the perceived democratic decit in Scotland
across three dimensions. Firstly, politically,
devolution would enable better consideration
of the Scottish people and their distinctive
interests by introducing a new level of
democratic national representation. Secondly,
institutionally, a devolved legislature would
introduce a new venue in which Scottish
interests might exclusively be deliberated and
acted upon. Thirdly, in terms of policies, having
the capacity and authority to carefully consider
Scottish issues in a dedicated democratic forum
would presumably lead to the development of
more suitable laws and programmes with which
to address the needs of Scotland’s people.
After the 1997 referendum vote for Scottish
devolution, the steering group appointed to
draw up plans for how a Scottish Parliament
might function, embedded these values and
objectives into the institution’s procedures
and standing orders. Concretely, this included:
a proportional voting system to elect a more
politically and demographically representative
chamber; a strong committee system through
which to channel intensive and focused scrutiny
and deliberation of legislation; and a formal
requirement for Government and Parliament to
systematically and meaningfully consult society
and stakeholders.
The extent to which the Scottish Parliament
has managed to live up to these early
hopes remains contested. Devolution has
unquestionably transformed the way policy is
deliberated, decided and delivered in Scotland,
especially in those areas where the Parliament
has full legislative competence. Nevertheless,
the extent to which contemporary Scottish
politics and policymaking is dierent from
that of the UK has tended to be overstated. In
reality, the Scottish Parliament retains many
elements associated with the ‘Westminster
model’, including the tendency for most policy
and spending decisions to be controlled by the
executive.
The Parliament’s increasing workload across
an ever-expanding portfolio of legislative
competences has hampered the Scottish
Parliament’s ability to deliver transformative
politics and policy by impeding Committees’
ability to make full use of their otherwise quite
considerable powers. Moreover, expectations
that a new, more consensual and collegial
political culture would emerge have also
not been fully realised. Instead, political
antagonisms echoing the adversarialism of
‘old’ Westminster have emerged on a new,
subnational, Scottish scale. Ultimately, this begs
the question whether it was ever truly possible
to achieve primarily social and political aims,
such as enhanced civic participation in politics,
a reduction in socio-economic inequality, or the
emergence of a collegial political culture, solely
through institutional means.
Overall, though, the Scottish Parliament has
not entirely failed to live up to its architects’
aspirations. There have been notable instances
of ‘new politics’ in action, though many have
unfolded quietly, out of the media limelight.
Committees in particular have worked hard
to institutionalise public deliberation. The
Executive’s apparent dominance over the
legislative agenda often belies Committees’
and MSPs’ capacity to set priorities: proposals
originating from outside of the Executive
have regularly been taken on, amended, and
introduced as Government proposals including
the appointment of a children’s commissioner
for Scotland and an Act to protect wild
mammals.
Today, the Scottish Parliament and the people
of Scotland are at a juncture. The Parliament’s
rst two decades have been primarily measured
against objectives set by those who designed
it. Some have been more readily achieved than
others. It has managed to achieve elements
of ‘new politics’, including the normalisation
of a culture of consultation in the legislative
process and the fostering of some highly-visible
policy divergence, but it has not been able, for
reasons of resource limitations and political
antagonism, to deliver on all those early hopes
for devolution.
Yet, both the social and political expectations
of what devolution could oer, and the
institutional and political capacity to deliver
these have evolved considerably since the
early 2000s. Over the last 20 years, Scottish
policymakers and civil society alike have
developed a much keener understanding of
these contextual, institutional and political
challenges. Brexit has also stoked the ongoing
debate over the place and role of Scotland in,
or indeed out, of the UK. This juncture oers
an apt opportunity to reassess what a ‘new
Scottish politics’ could and ought to look like if
we go beyond the original desire to primarily be
‘dierent’ from ‘old Westminster’.
Author details:
Emily St. Denny and Peter Lynch teach
at the University of Stirling. They are
currently crowdfunding to create a graphic
novel of the history of the new Scottish
Parliament. Details of the project can be
found here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/
scottishparliamentgraphichistory
The Scottish
Parliament at 20
Emily St. Denny and Peter Lynch examine whether a new parliament delivered a ‘new Scottish politics’
© Jules Scheele
Last Word
Political Insight December 2019.indd 40 05/11/2019 10:16
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