Word of the Day: Manchesterism
'Business-Friendly Socialism'
As Andy Burham moves to the front of the line for Labour Party leadership in the UK, it’s common to see the term ‘Manchesterism’ linked to his prominence. Burham was Mayor of Greater Manchester for nine years, a led economic growth there, double that of the rest of the UK.
Here’s his explanation of ‘Manchesterism’ [emphasis mine]:
For years, regional growth in Britain was like the Holy Grail. Everyone said they wanted it but no one knew how to find it.
Finally, the great English cities are rising again and the catalyst is devolution1.
No one has done any of this for us. We have done it for ourselves.
In our case, the main foundation of the success of “Manchesterism”, as it has been called, is the creation of a different political culture - the polar opposite of the Whitehall and Westminster way.
Manchesterism starts with setting high ambitions for what we can be in the 21st century than were ever set for us at a national level.
In fact, pre-devolution, there was no ambition for us or the other English city regions anywhere outside of the Golden Triangle. Devolution has allowed us to set ambitions when there were none there before.
And then from those ambitions, we set out a long-term, patient approach to achieving them, rejecting the short-termism endemic in the Whitehall culture.
Manchesterism seeks to roll back the 1980s and take more local public control over the essential drivers of the economy, such as housing, utilities, transport and education.
It rejects unnecessary fragmentation and competition in public services and instead is highly integrated and collaborative; a whole-place approach uniting all sectors (public, private, academic, community, voluntary and faith) and weaving all threads together rather than an approach driven by the partial and often-conflicting positions of the Whitehall silos.
And the operating principle underneath all of this is place-first2, not party-first.
This is important because it gives business more confidence to engage more deeply in a place-first context, and the resulting strong partnership we have built with the private sector is critical to our success. It is business-friendly socialism.
This is a way of thinking that might be helpful in the post-industrial cities across the US.
Devolution, from Introduction to devolution in the United Kingdom - House of Commons Library:
“Devolution” is the term used to describe the process of transferring power from the centre (Westminster) to the nations and regions of the United Kingdom. The term is derived from the Latin, meaning “to roll down”. It is different from a federal or confederal system of government, under which every constituent part of a state enjoys autonomy and sovereignty. Under the UK constitutional tradition of “parliamentary sovereignty” devolution is, in theory, reversible, and the devolved institutions products of UK statute.
Devolution in the UK
The legislative frameworks for devolution were originally set out in the Scotland Act 1998, the Government of Wales Act 1998 and the Northern Ireland Act 1998, although all three have subsequently been amended. There is also a non-legislative framework of agreements between Government departments and the devolved institutions which help resolve disputes between central and devolved government.
The UK system of devolution is asymmetric, in that different parts of the UK have different forms of devolution and varying degrees of power. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland now all possess executive and legislative devolution, while Metro Mayors in parts of England (and the Mayor of London) have only executive powers. Combined Authorities and the London Assembly can scrutinise executive decisions but not legislate in the manner of the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd (or Welsh Parliament) and the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Devolved and reserved matters
Those three legislatures can only pass primary and secondary laws in devolved (or “transferred” in the case of Northern Ireland) areas, with “reserved” matters (or reserved and “excepted” in Northern Ireland) remaining the responsibility of Westminster. The UK Parliament can still legislate in devolved areas, but, under the Sewel Convention, does “not normally” do so without the explicit consent of the relevant devolved body.
Prior to the 1997 referendum on devolving power from Westminster to Wales, the then Secretary of State for Wales, Ron Davies, memorably referred to devolution as “a process, not an event”. This briefing paper looks at both the “event” of devolution in 1997-99 and the “process” of its development since then, outlining the structure and powers of devolved institutions in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, London and parts of England.
I recommend two articles on place-based economics: Paul Krugman’s The Economics of Left-Behind Regions, and Saving the heartland: Place-based policies in 21st century America by Benjamin Austin, Edward Glaeser, Lawrence H. Summers.