A new elite? Politicians and civil servants in Scotland after devolution

Parliamentary Affairs

Volumn 59, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 43-59

  Keating, Michael ^a   Cairney, Paul ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 30344434636     PISSN: 00312290     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/pa/gsj009     Document Type: Review

References (53)

1. The research on which this article is based was funded as part of a study of political and administrative elites based at the Constitution Unit, University College London, forming part of the Leverhulme programme on State and Region in the UK.
2. For a critical discussion, see G. Jordan and L. Stevenson, 'Redemocratizing Scotland' in A. Wright (ed.), Scotland: the Challenge of Devolution, Ashgate, 2001;
3. N. McGarvey, 'New Scottish Politics, New Texts Required', British Journal of Politics and International Relations, October 2001;
4. J. Mitchell, 'The Study of Scottish Politics Post-Devolution', Parliamentary Affairs, October 2001;
5. M. Keating, The Government of Scotland, Edinburgh University Press, 2005.
6. See note 5 below and in particular H. Best and M. Cotta (eds), Parliamentary Representatives in Europe 1848-2000, Oxford University Press, 2000.
7. M. Keating, The Role of the Scottish MP, PhD thesis, Glasgow College of Technology and CNAA, 1975;
8. M. Keating, 'Parliamentary Behaviour as a Test of Scottish Integration in the United Kingdom', Legislative Studies Quarterly, October 1978.
9. This reflects broad West European trends, although the terms 'politics-enabling' or 'politics-facilitating' are often used loosely and the prominence of certain occupations varies in West European countries. See Anthony King, 'The Rise of the Career Politician in Britain - And its Consequences', British Journal of Political Science, July 1981;
10. M. Rush, 'Career Patterns in British Polities', Parliamentary Affairs, October 1994;
11. P. Norris and J. Lovenduski, Political Recruitment: Gender, Race and Class in the British Parliament, Cambridge University Press, 1995;
12. P. Norton, 'Roles and Behaviour of British MPs' in T. Saalfeld and W.C. Muller (eds), Members of Parliament in Western Europe, Frank Cass, 1997;
13. T. Saalfeld, ' 'Professionalisation of Parliamentary Roles in Germany' in T. Saalfeld, and W.C. Muller (eds), Members of Parliament in Western Europe, Frank Cass, 1997;
14. H. Best and M. Cotta (eds), Parliamentary Representatives in Europe 1848-2000, Oxford University Press, 2000;
15. M. Shephard, N. McGarvey and M. Cavanagh, 'New Scottish Parliament, New Scottish Parliamentarians?' Journal of Legislative Studies, Summer 2001.
16. Data for MPs between 1945 and 1970 are taken from Keating, op. cit. 'The Role of the Scottish MP' Data on MPs in 2005 and on MSPs were gathered by the authors.
17. It comes as shock to recall that in 1955 the Conservatives not only won an absolute majority of votes and seats in Scotland, but also took seven out the fifteen constituencies in Glasgow. The decline in Conservative fortunes is charted in I.G.C. Hutchison, Scottish Politics in the Twentieth Century, Palgrave, 2001.
18. We thus avoided the trap of simply charting the decline of 'blue-collar' workers, which would have given us some rather commonplace findings.
19. King, Scottish Politics in the Twentieth Century op. cit.
20. Saalfeld includes civil servants but this does not seem appropriate for the UK.
21. C. Mellors, The British MP: a socio-economic study of the House of Commons, Saxon House, 1978.
22. That is, including - political worker/ researcher, trade union official, journalist/ media, public relations, quango, interest group/ think tank/ lobbyist, representative of another assembly - but excluding traditional categories such as barrister.
23. King, The British MP: a socio-economic study of the House of Commons op. cit.
24. Norton, The British MP: a socio-economic study of the House of Commons op. cit.
25. D. Kavanagh and D. Richards, 'Prime Ministers, Ministers and Civil Servants in Britain', Comparative Sociology, January 2003.
26. Shephard et al., Comparative Sociology op. cit.
27. Lindsay Paterson, Frank Bechhofer and David McCrone, Living in Scotland. Social and Economic Change since 1980, Edinburgh University Press, 2004.
28. According to Paterson et al., Living in Scotland. Social and Economic Change since 1980 op. cit., from those born between 1937 and 1946 to those born between 1967 and 1976 the percentage of the 'service class' (Goldthorpe categories 1 and 11) increased from 29.5% to 38%. This is not exactly equivalent to our category, but it suggests that the professionalisation of Scottish politicians is faster than that of the population as a whole.
29. Again taking the roughly equivalent Goldthorpe categories from Paterson et al., Living in Scotland. Social and Economic Change since 1980 op. cit., it would be around 40%.
30. Higher educational qualifications are those at Higher National Diploma and above. In Scotland, a higher proportion of higher education is delivered in further education colleges than in England. This no doubt accounts for the higher 'other higher education' figure among Scottish politicians.
31. Hutchison, Living in Scotland. Social and Economic Change since 1980 op. cit.
32. M. Keating, 'Labour in Scotland, 1951-65' in I. Donnachie, C. Harvie and I.S. Wood (eds), Forward! Labour Politics in Scotland, 1888-1988, Edinburgh University Press, 1988.
33. D. McCrone, 'Who are We? Understanding Scottish Identity' in C. Domenico, A. Law, J. Skinner and M. Smith (eds), Boundaries and Identities. Nation, Politics and Culture in Scotland, University of Abertay Press, 2001.
34. Keating, Boundaries and Identities. Nation, Politics and Culture in Scotland op. cit.;
35. J. Kellas, The Scottish Political System, Cambridge University Press, 1973.
36. McCrone, The Scottish Political System op. cit.
37. P. Lynch, Scottish Government and Politics, Edinburgh University Press, 2001.
38. K. Stolz, 'Moving up, moving down: Political careers across territorial levels', European Journal of Political Research, March 2003.
39. R. Kelsall, Higher Civil Servants in Britain, Routledge, 1955;
40. K. Theakston and G. Fry, 'Britain's Administrative Elite: Permanent Secretaries 1900-1986', Public Administration, Summer 1989;
41. P. Barberis, Elite of the Elite, Permanent Secretaries in the British Higher Civil Service, Dartmouth, 1996.
42. Kellas, Elite of the Elite, Permanent Secretaries in the British Higher Civil Service op. cit.
43. Kavanagh and Richards, Elite of the Elite, Permanent Secretaries in the British Higher Civil Service op. cit.
44. From a 1994 survey - C. Dargie and R. Locke, 'The British Senior Civil Service' in E. Page and V. Wright (eds), Bureaucratic Elites in Western European States, Oxford University Press, 1999.
45. Source: Who's Who (UK) and correspondence. In post rather than newly appointed. NAW and NIO departments excluded. Some figures are not available. The table uses valid %.
46. In head of group-equivalent positions. There are approximately 210 SCS in Scotland, while our sample of relatively senior SCS amounts to 71.
47. Source: SCS Database, Personnel Statistics, Cabinet Office (in correspondence). The table excludes the category of 'Not Known' (n=513) from the figures. FCO data is not available. Permanent Secretaries from agencies and those who do not head departments are included.
48. 44 (63%) of the Treasury's 70 SCS graduated from Oxford or Cambridge.
49. Kavanagh and Richards, Bureaucratic Elites in Western European States op. cit.
50. The MOD has 17 (6%) female SCS out of 262. Twelve of these are in payband 1 and five in payband 2. Similarly, with GCHQ there are 3 (9%) of 32. All three are in payband 1.
51. As part of our research on interest groups and policy communities in Scotland we carried out around 100 interviews between 2000 and 2004.
52. L. Paterson, 'Civic Democracy' in G. Hassan and C. Warhurst (eds), Anatomy of the New Scotland, Mainstream, 2002.
53. M. Keating, The Government of Scotland. Public Policy Making after Devolution, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005.