A Federal Wales I looked at the arguments for and against decentralisation within Wales after independence.
This part will look at the options and what each of them would mean more broadly.
A Federal Wales III will consider the options in more detail, including what kind of powers could be decentralised within Wales. A Federal Wales IV will consider how it would all work in practice – the number of regions/states, legislatures, executive arrangements/governance, elections etc.
There are perhaps four realistic options that can be put on the table to decentralise Wales:
- Regional Authorities – Identical to the regional authorities mentioned in Part VI (similar to the London Assembly), with no law-making powers.
- Devolution – A form of internal devolution similar to what Wales currently has within the UK. This means a small number of regional assemblies with law-making powers in policy areas that have been devolved to them by the Senedd.
- Autonomous Communities – Similar to devolution except the autonomous regions would have some control over their devolution settlements through statutes of autonomy – so they can take on as many or as few powers as they like within the bounds of the national constitution.
- Federalism – A written Welsh Constitution divides powers between the national and the state/regional legislatures with a clear boundary between the two.
There are several ways Wales could approach this:
- Do nothing/unitary state – We maintain the traditional local government & national government model with no other form of decentralisation. The Senedd would retain sole law-making powers and local government would continue to provide the kind of services they currently do. Reforms to local government such as those outlined in Part V and Part VI can still go ahead.
- The gradualist approach – The “process not an event” approach that’s been taken with the Senedd (to an extent). Wales starts with administrative devolution to regional assemblies (Part VI), then over several decades increase their powers until they’re able to take on full law-making powers as devolved regions.
- “Big Bang” Devolution – Wales remains a unitary state but adopts regional devolution with full law-making powers from the beginning of independence, whether that’s through a new Welsh Constitution or a Devolution Act.
- “Big Bang” Federalism – Wales adopts a federal constitution from the start of independence – though this would likely take far more work to set up.
I’ll continue to look at all the options in the next few pieces, but I don’t think outright federalism suits Wales from the start. The amount of infrastructure and planning that would need to be put in place may be as complicated and difficult as independence itself. It’s an option for the long-term after independence once people get used to the idea of devolution within Wales/regional government.
So, the “gradualist approach” and “Big Bang Devolution” options are perhaps the most practical options if an independent Wales is to be decentralised from the start. More on the practicalities of this in later parts. Not undertaking any form of devolution is also legitimate and local government reform may be enough in itself. Decentralisation is more about negating the risk of the Senedd becoming too powerful after independence.
