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The authors examine the implementation of environmental regulation and demonstrate that path dependency, created largely by resource constraints, narrows the range of options for implementing regulation. It also magnifies the impact of the institutional history of the regulatory body and the impact of the disciplinary commitments of those working within the regulatory body on the implementation process. It is shown that the result is that those involved in the implementation process are unable to consider all possible routes to implementation but, rather, only a relatively few 'manageable' options for the regulation of particular activities. The arguments are examined in the context of implementation of the Water Framework Directive 2000 (WFD) in Scotland. In particular the authors focus on the regulation of diffuse pollution under the WFD and on the role played by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency in that regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proponents of devolution have argued that devolved governing leads to enhanced democratisation. This democratisation process is argued to be the result both of new governance structures and of new practices of governing which produce a new, more democratic, politics. The case of Scottish devolution is one example of where constitutional change was constructed as heralding a ‘new politics’. This proposition is analysed through a specific policy intervention in the devolved Scotland—the designation of a national park in the Cairngorms. This designation is traced from the instigation of national parks legislation to the formal creation of the park. The claim that devolution can bring about a more open and participatory approach to governing is critiqued. It is proposed that, although democratisation has a formed a political rationality of devolution, the actual practices of governing owe more to traditional rationalities of managerialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]