Social justice and public policy

Seeking fairness in diverse societies

Craig, Gary,Burchardt, Tania

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781447315483
• Topic: Politik & Internationale Beziehungen
• Subtopic: Sozialpolitik

Social justice is a contested term, incorporated into the language of widely differing political positions. Those on the left argue that it requires intervention from the state to ensure equality, at least of opportunity; those on the right believe that it can be underpinned by the economics of the market place with little or no state intervention. To date, political philosophers have made relatively few serious attempts to explain how a theory of social justice translates into public policy. This important book, drawing on international experience and a distinguished panel of political philosophers and social scientists, addresses what the meaning of social justice is, and how it translates into the everyday concerns of public and social policy, in the context of both multiculturalism and globalisation.

NINE

Social justice in the UK: one route or four?

Katie Schmuecker

You can’t have Scotland doing something different from the rest of Britain. (Tony Blair, on tuition fees policy, quoted in Ashdown, 2001, p 446)

Devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland was one of the earliest and most radical Acts of the 1997 Labour government, opening up new and more democratically legitimate centres of decision-making power in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. Such constitutional changes are often regarded as dry, arcane matters of interest to a select few. But constitutional changes can have profound implications for policy and practice. Since the devolved administrations came into being in 1999, the achievement of overarching aspirations – such as progressing social justice – have required a different approach, one that takes account of policy differences in different parts of the UK.

For many, devolution to the nations of Scotland and Wales embodied a recognition of the different cultural and national identities in the multinational state that constitutes Great Britain. The debates that took place in the run-up to the referendums in 1997 focused heavily on creating a new kind of inclusive politics, voice, representation and, particularly in the case of Scotland, national identity. In terms of social justice, the issues that the debate turned on sat well within the more recent pluralistic approach to social justice, with its concern for representation and recognition of different groups (Fraser, 2003; Chapter Five, this volume).1 The referendum debates paid less attention to the consequences of the greater policy divergence that devolution could bring. The debate in Northern Ireland was somewhat different, with conflict resolution acting as the key driver of devolution. The circumstances in Northern Ireland are exceptional, with the project stalling and restarting a number of times, meaning that devolution has been interspersed with periods of suspension and the re-imposition of direct rule. As a result, Northern Irish policies will not be discussed in detail here.

Finding local solutions to local problems and addressing specific territorial needs is a key rationale for devolution. Devolution of powers can create opportunities for policy experimentation, innovation and learning, with new and successful ideas shared. In this sense, devolution is said to create ‘policy laboratories’. However, this also means different administrations pursuing different policies, a logical consequence of devolution that some – seemingly including Tony Blair – gave little thought to. Even in the first eight years of devolution, when Labour was either in power or the dominant partner in a coalition across all parts of Great Britain, there were some high-profile policy divergences. Some – such as the policies on tuition fees and proportional representation for local government elections in Scotland – were the result of coalition politics. But the May 2007 devolved elections resulted in a new political landscape, with a Nationalist administration in Scotland (albeit a minority one), Labour and the Nationalists sharing power in Wales, and the Unionists and Nationalists sharing power in Northern Ireland. With different parties in power in different parts of the UK the likelihood of divergent policy paths is surely increased.

It is the prospect of different parts of the UK developing different policy directions and spending decisions that has caused some to have concerns about the impact of devolution on the grounds of distributive social justice, and the ability to deliver common minimum standards (Walker, 2002). This could undermine what Marshall (1950) referred to as the ‘social rights of citizenship’, essentially a common minimum of social benefits and public services delivered by the welfare state, which are available to all citizens on the same terms, no matter where they live. While this chapter will challenge the view that devolution undermines social justice, these concerns do point to the conundrum that devolution poses for those concerned with social justice: how to reconcile equity with diversity (Morgan, 2001).

This chapter will explore the relationship between devolution and social justice. The next section will give an overview of the degree of devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, particularly in those policy areas that are important to distributive social justice and Marshall’s ‘social rights of citizenship’. The following section will give an overview of the theoretical debates about the relationship between devolution and distributive social justice, before the third section considers the actual scope for divergence in the UK. The final section will consider the relationship between devolution and social justice in practice by looking at two specific examples: first, policies to combat poverty and social exclusion across the UK; and second, the impact of transparency and public opinion on policy making in a devolved UK using the example of NHS waiting times.

The UK devolution settlement and distributive social justice

In order to understand the relationship between devolution and distributive justice, it is important to understand the extent of devolution, and how fully powers are devolved in different areas. Each of the devolved settlements differs (see the appendix to this chapter for a summary of powers), as does the level of autonomy available to each administration. All of the administrations exercise significant powers in the areas of health, education, housing, local government, social care and planning. But while Scotland enjoys some limited tax-raising powers,2 and both Scotland and Northern Ireland have primary legislative powers, the Welsh government has less autonomy. It has secondary legislative and executive powers, and the 2006 Government of Wales Act conferred some legislative competence, although permission must be sought from Westminster on a case-by-case basis.

Two of the most important policy instruments for tackling poverty, and also for progressing equity and distributive justice, are the redistributive powers of taxation and benefits. These are the very foundation of the welfare state, and are fundamental to shared social citizenship rights if we follow the thinking of Marshall, or what David Miller (2005) has more recently called the ‘social minimum’ necessary for social justice. These are areas that remain reserved to the UK level, with the Treasury and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) exercising significant powers for the whole of the UK.3 Policies essential to distributive justice such as social security levels, the state pension, minimum wage, and tax credits all remain reserved. In this respect there arguably remains one main route to distributive social justice for the whole of the UK post-devolution.

However, distributive social justice is broader than simple measures of income distribution. Despite the differences in the devolved settlements, each of the devolved administrations exercises substantial powers over social policy, including how education and health services are designed and delivered, housing policy and substantial parts of ‘early years’ policy. Access to good-quality public services, particularly those just mentioned, also have an important role to play in delivering more equal life chances (Pearce and Paxton, 2005), and it is here that the devolved administrations have a substantial role to play.

In this respect, devolution has made progressing social justice more challenging in two ways. The first is a challenge of coordination, as there are some important areas of overlap between devolved and reserved powers. For example, while housing policy is largely devolved, responsibility for Housing Benefit remains reserved. This means that successful policies for social housing are likely to require coordination across different levels of government. Such coordination may be made more challenging still with different parties in power in different parts of the UK. The second is that democratic devolution has enhanced the likelihood of divergent approaches to policy in areas where the devolved administrations exercise powers, especially when there are different parties in power in different parts of the UK. This could lead to unequal progress towards social justice and differing social citizenship rights in different parts of the UK.

Does devolution undermine social justice?

Traditionally, some on the Left have regarded devolution as a threat to social justice, fearing that national identities could undermine class solidarity – Bevan (1944) summed up this view when he declared that there is no ‘Welsh problem’ (see also Kinnock, 1975). To allow devolution of power is to risk creating diverse standards – or ‘postcode lotteries’ – undermining equity, social citizenship and national solidarity (Walker, 2002). The social democratic welfare state, to this line of thinking, is a strong, centralised state ensuring even provision across the country. It has symbolic power, conveying national solidarity that underpins and reinforces attachment to the state as a nation, providing the basis on which redistribution can occur (McEwen, 2002).

Through devolution the UK has evolved into a quasi-federal state, and a brief survey of federalist theory would seem to uphold the concerns about the impact of devolving powers on the welfare state. Comprehensive comparative studies (Swank, 2002) have co...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Notes on contributors
• Introduction
• ONE: Social justice and public policy: a view from political philosophy
• TWO: Social justice and public policy: a social policy perspective
• THREE: Multiculturalism, social justice and the welfare state
• FOUR: Structural injustice and the politics of difference
• FIVE: Recognition and voice: the challenge for social justice
• SIX: Globalisation, social justice and the politics of aid
• SEVEN: Social justice and the family
• EIGHT: Children, policy and social justice
• NINE: Social justice in the UK: one route or four?
• TEN: Monitoring inequality: putting the capability approach to work
• ELEVEN: The limits of compromise? Social justice, ‘race’ and multiculturalism
• TWELVE: Understanding environmental justice: making the connection between sustainable development and social justice