Search

Renewable energy has long been central to SNP policy making and Scottish independence. During the 2014 referendum, green electricity generation was presented as a means for Scotland to achieve 'reindustrialisation'. Despite a world‐leading transition in electricity supply, the Scottish government has struggled to develop renewables manufacturing. Scotland's largest offshore engineering company, BiFab, entered administration in 2020. This article explains the faltering of Scotland's green industrial revolution. First, it assesses renewables' privileged place in SNP perspectives, underlining its deep roots in North Sea oil and criticisms of British governments' mismanagement of offshore opportunities. Second, the failure of market‐led policy making to provide the anticipated industrial benefits from offshore wind developments is explained through the domineering role of foreign state‐owned enterprises and global supply chains in the UK's renewables sector. The conclusion argues that older nationalist perspectives offer remedies, but these require a more active industrial policy that diverges from the current approach of the Scottish Government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Devolvement of functions to quangos and Departmental Agencies has been a marked feature of reform in government since 1970, accelerated by the 'Next Steps' initiative (1987-90). Its effects in terms of performance, costs and disengagement from related government activity are discussed by reference to experiences in the management of two large quangos created after 1970, the Manpower Services and Health and Safety Commissions and their Executives. Some general lessons are drawn for present application, and the discussion seeks also to expose realities and difficulties in the management of public bodies that are often overlooked in theoretical argument. It acknowledges the advantages of devolvement, but points to serious limitations in the 'owner-agency' model when applied to public business, arising from powerful centralising forces, rapid changes in political aims, the cardinal requirement for economy, and shifting needs for lateral co-operation across the government sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the concept of privatization that changed the values of political and administrative actors who hold power. Privatization in Great Britain began at the margins of public policy and worked its way inward. Privatization was quickly reflected in the dominant public discourse employed by policy-makers. Privatization was sold as a means to deal with under performing, loss making public enterprises. Policy learning, a feature of any reform agenda, was therefore a significant issue in the emergence of privatization as a viable, fully worked out policy.