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SCHOOL of PUBLIC POLICY 
The State of the |
Alex Christie is a research fellow with the Scottish Economic Policy Network and previously worked on Leverhulme Trust-funded research into the Barnett formula and territorial public finance. His research interests lie in the field of public finance and he has provided information for the Scottish Parliament on EU funding and the Scottish Budget.
John Curtice is Professor of Politics and Director of the Social Statistics Laboratory at Strathclyde University. He is also Deputy Director of the ESRC Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends and Head of Research, National Centre for Social Research Scotland. A frequent commentator on both British and Scottish politics in the media, he is co-author of L. Paterson et al, New Scotland, New Politics? (Polygon) and co-editor of J. Curtice et al, New Scotland, New Society (Polygon) and A. Park et al, British Social Attitudes: the 18th report (Sage).
Robert Hazell is the Director of the Constitution Unit and Professor of Government and the Constitution in the School of Public Policy, University College London. Originally a barrister, he spent most of his working life at the Home Office. He left Whitehall to become director of the Nuffield Foundation and founded the Constitution Unit in 1995.
Roger Masterman is a Research Assistant at the Constitution Unit, working on the Leverhulme Trust-funded project on ‘Devolution and Westminster’ and the ESRC-funded project on ‘Devolution and Whitehall’.
James Mitchell is Professor of Politics and Head of the Department of Government, University of Strathclyde, and author of numerous books and articles on Scottish and UK politics and devolution.
John Osmond is Director of the Institute of Welsh Affairs, a policy think tank based in Cardiff. He is a former political journalist and television producer and has written widely on Welsh politics and devolution. His most recent books are Welsh Europeans (Serena, 1997); The National Assembly Agenda (Editor, 1998) and Inclusive Government and Party Management: The National Assembly for Wales and the Work of its Committees (co-editor with J. Barry Jones, 2001) both published by the Institute.
John Tomaney works in the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies at Newcastle University. His research interests include the political economy of regional development and the politics of devolution in England. Among his recent publications is A Region in Transition: North East England at the Millennium (Aldershot, Ashgate), edited with Neil Ward.
Alan Trench has been a Senior Research Fellow at the Constitution Unit since February 2001. A solicitor by profession, he has also worked in local government and in private legal practice.
Rick Wilford is Reader in Politics, Queen’s University Belfast. He has written extensively on both devolution and politics in Northern Ireland. His most recent works include the co-edited ‘Politics in Northern Ireland’ (Westview Press, 1999) and ‘Designing the Northern Ireland Assembly’, in Parliamentary Affairs, July 2000. He is currently researching devolution and health in Northern Ireland as part of the Constitution Unit’s wider research programme in this area.
Robin Wilson is director of the Belfast-based think-tank Democratic Dialogue, which he founded in 1995. He has been intimately involved for many years in the debates around UK devolution, as well as the specific issues attaching to the Northern Ireland conflict, on which he has written numerous journal articles and book chapters. He was formerly editor of the current-affairs magazine Fortnight. He is a member of the Northern Ireland Community Relations Council.
Special offers:‘The Constitution Unit has already won itself a well-deserved reputation for independent, non-partisan judgments on constitutional developments. The State and the Nations, the first of an annual series of yearbooks on devolution, will add to its reputation. It will prove an invaluable volume of record for all serious students of the changing United Kingdom.’ Vernon Bogdanor ‘Once again the Constitution Unit has shown itself to be the country’s leading constitutional cartographer. Mapping the first months and years of the new constitutional settlement is both brave and demanding, but the Unit’s team has pulled it off magnificently.’ Peter Hennessy ‘The Constitution Unit has done its usual thorough job not just in showing how devolution is working in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but also in highlighting the far-reaching implications for the whole of the UK, and, particularly for Whitehall and Westminster. London based politicians and journalists will learn a lot about how central government and Parliament might be improved.’ Peter Riddell 'The State and the Nations is part of a considered and authoritative long term academic study of the constitutional reform of this country.' John Reid, The Scotsman 'Another highly detailed and useful contribution to the study of the UK's devolution process.' Rosanne Palmer, Regional and Federal Studies. 'Admirally lucid and comprehensive.' Paul Henderson Scott, Scottish Affairs 'Packed full of useful information . . . the price asked is modest for so authoritative and useful a publication.' Howard Elcock, Representation 'A very interesting collection of papers.' John Fairley, Scolag Journal 'The State and the Nations -- excellent as a reference work, with polls, cabinets, chronologies, etc. -- laments Westminster's misapprehension of the constitutional innovations it has willed.' Planet -- The Welsh Internationalist