The Politics of Wales forms a distinctive polity in the wider politics of the United Kingdom, with Wales as one of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom (UK).
Constitutionally, the United Kingdom is a unitary state with one sovereign parliament delegating power to the devolved national parliaments, with some executive powers divided between governments. Under a system of devolution adopted in the late 1990s three of the four countries of the United Kingdom, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, voted for limited self-government, subject to the ability of the UK Parliament in Westminster, nominally at will, to amend, change, broaden or abolish the national governmental systems. As such, the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; ) is not de jure sovereign. Since then, further Welsh devolution has granted the Senedd additional powers.
Executive power in the United Kingdom is vested in the King-in-Council, while legislative power is vested in the King-in-Parliament (the Crown and the Parliament of the United Kingdom at Westminster in London). The Government of Wales Act 1998 established devolution in Wales, and certain executive and legislative powers have been constitutionally delegated to the Welsh Parliament. The scope of these powers has been further widened by the Government of Wales Act 2006, Wales Act 2014 and Wales Act 2017.
Overview
Since 1999 most areas of domestic policy have been decided within Wales via the Senedd and the Welsh Government (the "Welsh Assembly Government" between 1999 and 2011 (de facto)/2014 (de jure)).
Judicially, Wales remains within the jurisdiction of England and Wales. In 2007, the National Assembly for Wales (renamed as the Senedd from May 2020) gained the power to enact Wales-specific Measures. Following the 2011 Welsh devolution referendum, the National Assembly was given the power to create Acts.
Wales, together with Cheshire, used to come under the jurisdiction of the Court of Great Session, and therefore was not within the English circuit court system. Yet it has not been its own distinct jurisdiction since the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542, at which point Welsh Law was replaced by English Law.
Before 1998, there was no separate government in Wales. Executive authority rested in the hands of the HM Government, with substantial authority within the Welsh Office since 1965. Legislative power rested within the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Judicial power has always been with the Courts of England and Wales, and the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (or its predecessor the Law Lords).
History
Medeival era
Following the end of the Roman era in Wales many independent kingdoms emerged, the most prominent of them were the kingdom of Gwynedd, kingdom of Powys, kingom of Dyfed, kingdom of Morgannwg, and later the kingdom of Deheubarth. Many kings united most or all of Wales, but due to traditional Welsh inheritence law their kingdoms were divided equally between their sons. They came into frequent conflict with Anglo-Saxons who migrated to the island starting in the 6th century; early Welsh sources mention there was continued relationships and alliances with rulers in the Hen Ogledd (Old North). Welsh states were traditionally divided into cantrefi (hundreds) and commotes, as local governence regions.
Hywel Dda (king of Wales 942–950) was one of the most notable figures in Welsh history, not only for uniting most of Wales, but because he codified Welsh law, known as Cyfraith Hywel (laws of Hywel).Davies, John (1999). Hanes Cymru [History of Wales]. Penguin books. ISBN 0140125701.
Gruffudd ap Llywelyn ( – 1063) was the only king to unite all of modern-day Wales.Jones, Thomas (1959). "GRUFFUDD ap LLYWELYN (died 1063), king of Gwynedd and Powys, and after 1055 king of all Wales". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales.
Norman and Plantagenent invasions
Following the Norman Conquest, there was further encroachment, particularly into South Wales and the establishment of Welsh Marcher Lords. These were territories in which Anglo-Norman lords had complete jurisdiction over their subjects, without recourse to the king of England. The king had jurisdiction only in treason cases, though the lords each bore personal allegiance to the king as feudal subjects.
Wales was conquered by England in 1283. The 1284 Statute of Rhuddlan annexed the territory to England.
Glyndŵr revolt
Owain Glyndŵr briefly restored Welsh independence in a national uprising that began in 1400 after his supporters declared him Prince of Wales. He convened Wales' first Senedd in Machynlleth in 1404, but the rebellion was put down by 1412. Owain Gwynedd was the first ruler to use the title Prince of Wales (Welsh: Tywysog Cymru), and established an alliance with France.
Tudor era and early modern Wales
The Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542, passed by the English Parliament in the reign of Henry VIII, united the Principality and the Marches of Wales, creating a formalised border for the first time. Wales became part of the realm England. The Welsh legal system of Hywel Dda that had existed alongside the English system since the conquest by Edward I, was now fully replaced. Penal laws enacted after the Welsh revolt were rendered obsolete by acts that made the Welsh people citizens of the realm, and all the legal rights and privileges of the English were extended to the Welsh for the first time. These changes were widely welcomed by the Welsh people, although more controversial was the requirement that Welsh members elected to parliament must be able to speak English, and that English would be the language of the courts.
Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries
The Wales and Berwick Act 1746 stated that all laws applying to England would also be applicable to Wales, unless the body of the law explicitly stated otherwise. However, during the latter part of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century the notion of a distinctive Welsh polity gained credence. In 1881 the Welsh Sunday Closing Act was passed, the first such legislation exclusively concerned with Wales. The Central Welsh Board was established in 1896 to inspect the grammar schools set up under the Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889, and a separate Welsh Department of the Board of Education was formed in 1907. The Agricultural Council for Wales was set up in 1912, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries had its own Welsh Office from 1919.
Campaigns for greater powers
Despite the failure of popular political movements such as Cymru Fydd, a number of institutions, such as the National Eisteddfod (1861), the University of Wales () (1893), the National Library of Wales () (1911) and the Welsh Guards () (1915) were created. The campaign for disestablishment of the Anglican Church in Wales, achieved by the passage of the Welsh Church Act 1914 (effective from 1920), was also significant in the development of Welsh political consciousness. Without a popular base, the issue of home rule did not feature as an issue in subsequent general elections and was quickly eclipsed by the depression. By August 1925 unemployment in Wales rose to 28.5%, in contrast to the economic boom in the early 1920s, rendering constitutional debate an exotic subject. In the same year Plaid Cymru was formed with the goal of securing a Welsh-speaking Wales.
Following the Second World War the Labour Government of Clement Attlee established the Council for Wales and Monmouthshire, an unelected assembly of 27 with the brief of advising the UK government on matters of Welsh interest. By that time, most UK government departments had set up their own offices in Wales. By 1947, a unified Welsh Regional Council of Labour became responsible for all Wales. In 1959 the Labour council title was changed from "Welsh Regional council" to "Welsh council", and the Labour body was renamed Labour Party Wales in 1975.
The post of Minister of Welsh Affairs was first established in 1951, but was at first held by the UK home secretary. Further incremental changes also took place, including the establishment of a Digest of Welsh Statistics in 1954, and the designation of Cardiff () as Wales's capital city in 1955. However, further reforms were catalysed partly as a result of the controversy surrounding the flooding of Capel Celyn in 1956. Despite almost unanimous Welsh political opposition the scheme had been approved, a fact that seemed to underline Plaid Cymru's argument that the Welsh national community was powerless.
In 1964 the incoming Labour Government of Harold Wilson created the Welsh Office under a Secretary of State for Wales, with its powers augmented to include health, agriculture and education in 1968, 1969 and 1970 respectively. The creation of administrative devolution effectively defined the territorial governance of modern Wales.The road to the Welsh Assembly from BBC Wales History website. Retrieved 23 August 2006.
Labour's incremental embrace of a distinctive Welsh polity was arguably catalysed in 1966 when Plaid Cymru president Gwynfor Evans won the Carmarthen by-election (although in fact Labour had endorsed plans for an elected council for Wales weeks before the by-election). However, by 1967 Labour retreated from endorsing home rule mainly because of the open hostility expressed by other Welsh Labour MPs to anything "which could be interpreted as a concession to nationalism" and because of opposition by the Secretary of State for Scotland, who was responding to a growth of Scottish nationalism.
In response to the emergence of Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party (SNP) Harold Wilson's Labour Government set up the Royal Commission on the Constitution (the Kilbrandon Commission) to investigate the UK's constitutional arrangements in 1969.Devolution in the UK : Department for Constitutional Affairs. UK State website. Retrieved 9 July 2005. Its eventual recommendations formed the basis of the 1974 White Paper Democracy and Devolution: proposals for Scotland and Wales., which proposed the creation of a Welsh Assembly. However, voters rejected the proposals by a majority of four to one in a referendum held in 1979.The 1979 Referendums : BBC website. Retrieved 9 July 2006.
Devolved era
The election of a Labour Government in 1997 brought devolution back to the political agenda. In July 1997, the government published a White Paper, A Voice for Wales, which outlined its proposals for devolution, and in September 1997 an elected Assembly with competence over the Welsh Office's powers was narrowly approved in a referendum. The National Assembly for Wales () was created in 1999, with further authority devolved in 2007, with the creation of a Welsh legal system to adjudicate on specific cases of Welsh law. Following devolution, the role of the secretary of state for Wales greatly reduced. Most of the powers of the Welsh Office were handed over to the National Assembly; the Wales Office was established in 1999 to supersede the Welsh Office and support the secretary of state.
Between 1999 and 2007 there were three elections for the National Assembly. Labour won the largest share of votes and seats in each election and has always been in government in Wales, either as a minority administration or in coalition, first with the Liberal Democrats (2000 to 2003) and with Plaid Cymru between 2007 and 2011.McLean, I. "The National Question" in Seldon, A., ed. (2007) Blair's Britain 1997-2007. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. The predominance of coalitions is a result of the Additional Member System used for Assembly elections, which has worked to the benefit of Labour (it won a higher share of seats than votes in the 1999, 2003 and 2007 elections) but not given it the same advantage the party has enjoyed in first-past-the-post elections to Welsh seats in the House of Commons.