The issue of devolution has often been one for polemic rather than reasoned analysis. This work places recent developments in the United Kingdom in their historical context, examining political and constitutional aspects of devolution in Britain from Gladstone's espousal of Home Rule in 1886 right up to the 1998 legislation governing the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly. As well as considering what devolution will mean for Scotland and Wales, and how it will work in practice, Vernon Bogdanor discusses parallels with earlier devolution debates, giving special attention to the issue of Irish Home Rule which racked British politics from 1886 to 1914. He also examines the situation in Northern Ireland, which possessed its own Parliament from 1921 to 1972, providing an analysis of the 1998 Good Friday agreement. Devolution cuts across the boundaries of disciplines such as history, political science and law, and should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand the significance of one of the most important constitutional developments of our time. The book is therefore aimed at the interested general reader, as well as students of political science, the history of government and British politics.

Vernon Bogdanor is Professor of Government at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow and Tutor in Politics at Brasenose College, Oxford.