The Evolution of Devolution: Labour‘s Home Rule Strategy in Opposition

Abstract

THE LITERATURE ON CENTRAL GOVERNMENT RESPONSES TO ETHNIC or peripheral demands suggests a continuum from meeting the challenge head on to conceding some or all of the demand. Strategies also have to be developed by parties in opposition. As the dominant party in Scotland, Labour found itself embroiled in the demand for constitutional change and having to respond in the 1980s. This created party management problems. The evolution of Labour's territorial strategy in opposition between 1979 and 1997 is important in understanding what it did after coming to power. The maintenance of support for Scottish home rule, the alterations in the policy and the method of implementing it can only be explained by understanding the evolution of the policy during the party's eighteen years out of office. During this time, there was a paradigm shift in Labour thinking which made devolution more likely when it came to power.