Nationalism and Devolution

: An Enquiry into the Changing Dynamics of the Territorial Constitution of the United Kingdom

Abstract

The United Kingdom is in a prolonged episode of constitutional unsettlement. Contemporary accounts have moved to analyse and explain this process as a recent phenomenon, isolated to the age of ‘globalisation’, and neglecting the historical aspects of the dynamics of the territorial constitution. This thesis seeks to investigate the historical basis of the recent shifts in constitutional practice, placing them in context. It aims to do this in three ways. First, it examines the nature of the UK’s territorial constitution; its dynamics and the relationships between its four constituent parts – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – and the historical processes that led to its formation. Second, it turns the structural elements of the territorial constitution into the external sphere, exploring how the influences of national identity and nationalism, as well as the wider construction of the global sphere, have influenced the development of the territorial constitution. Third, it charts the effects of devolution on the territorial constitution. This analysis focusses specifically on the events that led to the introduction of devolution in 1998, and the subsequent effects this has had on the traditional dynamics and arrangement of authority within the territorial constitution. This thesis then concludes with a discussion of the effects of the recent Brexit process on the territorial constitution. This thesis argues that central to understanding the dynamics of the territorial constitution lies the delicate balance between the legal and political conceptions of power and authority, in particular sovereignty. This thesis concludes that the future of the territorial constitution lies in understanding its past, the motivations for its construction and the long origins of its current turn towards unsettlement

Date of Award	2018
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Aberystwyth University
Supervisor	Nathan Gibbs (Supervisor)