Democratic Constitutions, Poverty and Economic Inequality: Redress Through the Fourth Branch Institutions?

Abstract

The Scottish Poverty and Inequality Commission is a relatively new fourth branch institution with responsibility for addressing both poverty and inequality in Scotland. Nonetheless, it has made important, if modest and incremental, inroads to achieving these objectives, by encouraging the collection and use by government of relevant data in policy-formation; and the expansion and acceleration in the roll-out of important substantive policies focused on alleviating child poverty. The question this raises is what underpins this institutional success. The article draws attention to three key factors: the Commission’s distinctive combination of independence and a collaborative approach to policy making, supported by a ‘triangular’ relationship between the government, Commission and civil society, its expertise and perceived legitimacy, and the unique policy context presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s commitment to devolution and progressive differentiation of its policies from the UK. These factors, it suggests, offer useful lessons for constitutional and institutional designers elsewhere — about both the promise and contingency and four branch solutions to problems of economic exclusion and disadvantage.