Beyond devolution and decentralisation DEVOLUTION series series editor Charlie Jeffrey already published Devolution has established new political Between two Unions institutions in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Europeanisation and London and the other English regions since Scottish devolution 1997. These devolution reforms have far- Paolo Dardanelli reaching implications for the politics, policy and society of the UK. Radical institutional change, Territorial politics and combined with a fuller capacity to express the health policy UK’s distinctive territorial identities, is reshaping UK health policy the way the UK is governed and opening up in comparativeperspective new directions of public policy. These are the Scott L. Greer biggest changes to UK politics for at least 150 years. The English Question Robert Hazell The Devolutionseries brings together the best research in the UK on devolution and its implications. It draws together the best analysis Devolution and electoral from the Economic and Social Research Council’s politics research programme on Devolution and Dan Hough and Charlie Constitutional Change. The series will have Jeffery (eds) three central themes, each of which are vital components in understanding the changes devolution has set in train. 1 Delivering public policy after devolution: diverging from Westminster: Does devolution result in the provision of different standards of public service in health or education, or in widening economic disparities from one part of the UK to another? If so, does it matter? 2 The political institutions of devolution: How well do the new devolved institutions work? How effectively are devolved and UK-level matters coordinated? How have political organisations which have traditionally operated UK-wide – political parties, interest groups – responded to multi-level politics? 3 Public attitudes, devolution and national identity: How do people in different parts of the UK assess the performance of the new devolved institutions? Do people identify themselves differently as a result of devolution? Does a common sense of Britishness still unite people from different parts of the UK? Beyond devolution and decentralisation Building regional capacity in Wales and Brittany Alistair Cole Manchester University Press Manchester and New York distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave Copyright © Alistair Cole 2006 The right of Alistair Cole to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Published byManchester University Press Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9NR, UK andRoom 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA Distributed exclusively in Canada by UBC Press, University of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z2 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for ISBN0 7190 7092 9 hardback EAN 978 0 7190 7092 1 First published 2006 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Typeset by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Manchester Printed in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd, King’s Lynn Contents List of tables pagevi Preface vii 1 Regional capacity building in Europe 1 2 Comparing France and the United Kingdom 18 3 Wales and Brittany: history, politics, society 40 4 Devolution and polity building in Wales 62 5 Decentralisation and political capacity building in Brittany 87 6 Political institutions, public and elite opinions in Wales and Brittany 112 7 Policy communities, public policy and policy learning in Wales and Brittany 137 8 Regional political capacity in Wales and Brittany 161 Bibliography 180 Index 192 List of tables 2.1 Sub-national authorities in France in 2002 page 34 3.1 Comparing political and policy contexts 44 6.1 Institutional preferences in Wales and Brittany 115 6.2 The Moreno identity scale for Brittany and Wales 118 6.3 Identity and institutional preferences in Wales 119 6.4 Identity and institutional preferences in Brittany 120 6.5 Voting intentions and institutional preferences in Wales 121 6.6 Voting intentions and institutional preferences in Brittany 121 6.7 First priority for regional expenditure in Wales and Brittany 123 6.8 Logistic regression estimates for Wales 127 6.9 Logistic regression estimates for Brittany 128 6.10 Interview and mass opinions in Brittany compared 132 6.11 Interview and mass opinions in Wales compared 133 Preface Beyond Devolution and Decentralisation has been a long-standing enterprise, con- ceived in 2000 and begun in earnest in 2001. The research project upon which the book is based was financed by the Economic and Social Research Council under the title of ‘Devolution and Decentralisation in Wales and Brittany’ (Grant number L 219 25 2007). I thank the council for its support. With assistance from colleagues on the research project, a total of 104 interviews in Wales and 101 interviews in Brittany were conducted from April 2001 to March 2004. These interviews were taped and tran- scribed, and lasted between thirty minutes and one hour. Thanks are due to all the interviewees in the two countries for their co-operation. Beyond that Market Research Wales and Efficience 3 were commissioned to carry out a comparative public-opinion survey in Wales and Brittany in June and July 2001. A representative sample of around 1000 (1008 in Wales, 1007 in Brittany), selected by quotas of age, gender, socio-eco- nomic group and locality, was interviewed in each region. Beyond Devolution and Decentralisation compares the politics, policies and polity building dynamics of devolution in Wales and decentralisation in the French region of Brittany. Through investigating two historic regions (Wales and Brittany) in two neighbouring European Union states, the aim was to achieve a deeper understanding of processes of comparative regional governance in Europe. Empirically, the book draws conclusions from in-depth fieldwork within the two regions and reports the findings of the comparative opinion survey. Theoretically, the intent was to contribute a fascinating comparative case study to the understanding of the various dimensions comprising regional political capacity. Comparison of Wales and Brittany plays itself out at a number of levels, each of which has a rather different intellectual rationale and supporting body of literature. This study seeks to establish comparative dynamics in Wales and Brittany. What weight should be given to national institutional traditions in both countries? How important are regionally specific explanations and how can these be conceptualised? Can distinc- tions be drawn between policy issue-areas (regional languages and training) and, if so, what does this tell about the operation of regional institutions in the two countries? What lessons can policy-makers draw from observing practice elsewhere? How does public opinion view the prospect of greater regional autonomy, and what are the acceptable parameters within which public policy is formulated in the two regions? Throughout the book, empirical answers are sought for these questions of compara- tive analysis. In addition to the mass survey, the research endeavoured to uncover the dynamics viii PREFACE of devolution in Wales and decentralisation in Brittany through extensive face-to-face interviews. These interviews were semi-structured, combining a small number of routine questions with a range of institutional and policy-specific questions aimed at attaining a maximum of information in areas of great technical complexity and insti- tutional uncertainty. This method was especially pertinent in Wales, due to the new institutional framework put into place by devolution. I sincerely thank everybody who agreed to be interviewed during the 2001–2002 period, a formative stage in the devel- opment of the devolved institutions in Wales and a period of expectation in Brittany as well. I would like to record my sincere gratitude to the following people, all of whom contributed to the development of the project and freely gave up their time: Gaelle Abily, Thierry Acquitter, Martine Allais, Michel André, Olier ar Mogn, Loiag ar Roc, Yannig Baron, Lorraine Barrett, Pierre Baudewyns, Maurice Baylé, Michel Bellion, Graham Benfield, Chris Bettinson, Mark Beynon, Mike Bialyj, Pierre Blanc, Sylvie Blottière, Christian Bonnet, Nick Bourne, Pierre Boyer, Jean Brihault, Fanch Broudig, Paul Bullock, Eleanor Burnham, Henri Bussery, Marcel Calvez, Lauro Capdevila, Daniel Carré, Denis Cassell, Anna Vari Chapalain, Christine Chapman, Geneviève Chignac, Des Clifford, Helen Conway, Jacques Cosquer, Jean-Yves Cozan, Richard Crawshaw, Jean-Jacques Creac’h, Cynog Dafis, Daniel David, Jane Davidson, Byron Davies, Glyn Davies, Jocelyn Davies, Ron Davies, Josselin de Rohan, Marc Debène, Annick Decrop, Patrick Délorme, Christian Demeure-Vallée, Gwendal Denez, Per Denez, MichelDenis, Alasdair Denton, Philippe Desnos, Shelia Drury, Jean Claude du Chalard, Elisabeth Dupoirier, Mel Edwards, Daffyd Elis Thomas, Ieuan Ellis, Delyth Evans, Emyr Evans, Jenny Evans, Phil Evans, Chris Farrow, FrancisFavereau, Anne Fayolle, Yvette Folliard, Jo Fontaine, Eve Fouilleux, Yann Fournis, Yves Fréville, Gérard Gauthier, Olivier Geffroy, Mike German, Bernard Gestyn, YvonnigGicquel, Russell Goodway, Alain Gourves, John Graystone, John Griffiths, Miriam Griffiths, Ifor Gruffydd, Annick Guillou-Moinard, Christian Guyonvarc’h, Christine Gwyther, Gareth Hall, Tony Harris, Alain Hellard-Goff, Edmond Hervé, Stephen Hutchinson, Mark Isherwood, Glenville Jackson, Yvon Jacob, Philippe Jacq, Charlie Jeffery, David Jenkins, Pippa John-Clarke, Alun Ffred Jones, Barry Jones, Elin Jones, Gareth Jones, John Walter Jones, Sir Harry Jones, Tom Jones, Jean-Louis Jossic, Jacques Kergoat, Marc Kerrien, Riwanon Kervella, Tim Key, Shelaagh Keyse, Milica Kitson, Marie Knox, David Lambert, Alain Lancelot, Jean-Louis Latour, André Lavennant, Peter Law, Ronan le Coadic, Jean-Yves Le Drian, Alain Le Gal, Patrick Le Galès, Bernard le Nail, Ronan Le Prohon, Michèle le Roux, Pierre Le Treut, Marylise Lebranchu, André Legrand, Renaud Lemaire, Jacques Leroy, Huw Lewis, Andrew Lincoln, Lena Louarn, Tangi Louarn, Sean Loughlin, Paul Loveluck, François Madelain, Pierre Malrieu, Gérard Marcou, Anne Marek, John Marek, Jean-Pierre Marholtz, Alan Marin, Joseph Martray, Georges McKechnie, Pierre Méhaignérie, Philippe Merrien, Rozen Milin, Stefan Moal, Jonathan Morgan, Rhodri Morgan, Tom Morgan, Yves Morvan, Paul Murphy, Marie Navarro, Erik Neveu, Peter Normann, Marie-Renée Oget, Jean-Pierre Orhan, James Osborne, John Osmond, François Pannetier, Steve Pantak, Leslie Parfitt, Laurence Park, Simon Pascoe, Isabelle Payoux, Michel Phlipponneau, Mike Pierce, Gilles Pinson, Bernard Pivette, Steven Place, Gerard Poidevin, Steve Pomeroy, Gérard Pourchet, James Price, Helen Prosser, Alun Pugh, François Quéré, Matthew Quinn, Gareth Rees, Terry Rees, Soazig Renault, Llew Rhys, Loic Richard, Nia Richardson, Alain Rissel, Jean-Louis Robert, Henry Roberts, PREFACE ix David Rosser, Bernadette Rouvière, Jan Royall, Meurig Royles, Joseph Salvi, Olivia Schofield, Karen Sinclair, Marie-Pierre Sineau, Anne Stevenson, Alan Storer, Chris Thomas, Mike Thomas, Rhodri Glyn Thomas, Richard Thomas, Jean-Pierre Thomin, Alan Tillotson, Jane Timmins, Bernard Toulemonde, Christian Troadec, Caroline Turner, Jean-Yves Veillard, Luc Vivier, Sir Adrian Webb, Daffyd Whittall, Daffyd Wigley, Colin Williams, John V. Williams, Phil Williams and Rhodri Williams. Special thanks go to my colleagues on the ESRC project Barry Jones, Sean Loughlin and Colin Williams, as well as to my three research assistants: Alan Storer, who assisted me in interviews across Wales in 2001/2002; Nia Richardson, who effi- ciently organised the conference on 14 March 2003 which brought the Welsh and Breton regional leaders together; and Yann Fournis, who carried out some fascinating interviews in Brittany. As usual, most thanks go to Caroline, for her unbearing patience. Mind you, she did get something in return . . . Alistair Cole, Cardiff, 27 January 2005