Territorial Politics and Devolution in Wales

This chapter addresses territorial politics and the introduction of devolution in Wales. In seeking to reappraise the politics of devolution in Wales, the chapter focuses on the power politics of how devolution was progressed; the chapter also applies the same framework of analysis on understanding how, why and with what intentions devolution was introduced. It discusses the nature of the territorial strain that Wales posed for the UK and the political resources behind territorial change, considering the extent to which bottom-up pressures had strengthened or not. It considers the politics of elite leadership of constitutional change and the code, strategy and goals of peripheral assertion applied. In so doing, it explores the utility of the proposition that instrumental policy arguments and mechanisms were at the forefront of the case for change. Equally, throughout the chapter there is consideration of how the British Labour leadership politically managed the development of devolution proposals both in opposition and in government, and again of the code, strategy and goals which it pursued. In so doing, the chapter explores the proposition that the Labour leadership adopted traditional territorial management methods to constrain the implications of devolution primarily through local elite assimilation. Finally, the chapter considers the policy process by which devolution proposals were created, both in opposition and in government, and the extent to which it contributed to their perceived effectiveness and legitimacy, and indeed the sense in which Welsh devolution could be also considered in the short to medium term as a successful reform.