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Home / Contemporary Wales, Volume 21, Number 1

Devolution and Public Policy in Wales: The Case of Transport

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Authors: Bradbury, Jonathan; Stafford, Ian

Source: Contemporary Wales, Volume 21, Number 1, September 2008, pp. 67-85(19)

Publisher: University of Wales Press

The advent of devolution in 1999 inter alia raised three key questions regarding the autonomy to develop public policy in Wales: first; the extent of policy competences; secondly, the capacity to make policy related to Welsh needs; and thirdly, to what ends would competences be put? This article seeks to reflect further on these questions by analysing the development of transport policy in Wales between 1997 and 2007. Interest in this policy sector was raised by the substantial institutional developments within this period and the passing of the Railways Act 2005 and the Transport (Wales) Act 2006, cumulatively portrayed as the largest transfer of powers to the Assembly between 1999 and 2007. This article explores the extensive changes in the policy competences of the Assembly after devolution, the importance of a new policy community to achieve that, and the extensive consideration of the purpose to which transport policy powers should be put. It draws upon interviews conducted with key policy actors across the transport policy sphere and is focused upon bringing the politics back into transport policy, highlighting the range of forces, that determined the course of public policy development.

Document Type: Research Article

Publication date: September 1, 2008

More about this publication?

  • Contemporary Wales is at the forefront of research into economic, political and social sciences relating to Wales. It contains both academic and practitioner-based articles, annual economic and legal reviews, and book reviews. Its interdisciplinary content drawing on current research on Wales makes the journal essential reading for students and researchers across a range of subject areas, including political and social policy, history, law, media and languages. Contemporary Wales has published articles in English and in Welsh.

    Mae Contemporary Wales wedi’i gyhoeddi’n gan Wasg Prifysgol Cymru fel llwyfan ar gyfer ymchwil blaengar ar Gymru o safbwynt y gwyddorau economaidd, gwleidyddol a chymdeithasol. Mae'n cynnwys cyfuniad o erthyglau gan academyddion ac ymarferwyr, adolygiadau economaidd a chyfreithiol blynyddol, ac adolygiadau o gyhoeddiadau yn y maes. Mae natur rhyngddisgyblaethol y cynnwys sy'n seliedig ar yr ymchwil diweddaraf yn golygu bod y cyfnodolyn yn hanfodol i wleidyddion, gwneuthurwyr polisi, y cyfryngau, gwasanaethau cyhoeddus, llywodraeth leol yn ogystal â fyfyrwyr ac ymchwilwyr mewn ystod eang o feysydd gan gynnwys polisi gwleidyddol a chymdeithasol, hanes, y gyfraith, y cyfryngau a ieithoedd. Mae Contemporary Wales wedi cyhoeddi erthyglau yn y Gymraeg a’r Saesneg.

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