Drawing on his experience as the former Chair of the Commission on Devolution in Wales, GPG Associate Sir Paul Silk shares key lessons from the gradual process of devolution that took place over the last two decades in Wales.
Sir Paul Silk, who was recently knighted for services to the Parliaments of the United Kingdom and to devolution, outlines the process, challenges and successes witnessed in Wales and the key elements of devolution. In his paper, he highlights how devolution should ultimately improve the quality of governance, and its value comes from this. Its essential feature is to bring Governments closer to people and in doing so, it improves oversight.
Debates over devolution and decentralisation are a charged political issue in countries around the world, at home and abroad, in both established democracies and states undergoing transitions. In these cases, are there lessons that can be shared from Britain’s decades long process of decentralisation and the Welsh experience? The paper can be downloaded in Arabic and English.