Devolution and institutional culture: path-dependency and the Welsh assembly

Abstract

In an attempt to identify and assess institutional culture in the Welsh Assembly (WA), this article analyses agency and path-dependency in relation to Assembly Member (AM) perspectives, devolution policy and historical documentation. As primary agents, AMs were posed a number of questions regarding the initial rationales for an Assembly and whether the new institution reflected the cultural tendencies of its incoming membership. In order to identify and understand relationships between agency and path-dependency, this article identifies a distinction between the WA and individual actors. Distinctions between organisational and individual levels identify how different institutions fit together and illustrate relationships between path-dependency and agency. These relationships allow theoretical and empirical insights into cultural difference between the emerging WA and pre-devolution Welsh political institutions.

Keywords:

• historical institutionalism
• agency
• path-dependency
• calculus and cultural approaches
• critical juncture
• Welsh Assembly
• Assembly Members
• institutional culture

Notes

1. A worldview is made up of values and meaning in relation to a view of life and provides a contemplation of the world in relation to the individual. A worldview allows a conceptualisation of self in subjective and objective terms. This idea is underpinned by the methodological approach used in this article (see note 4 for further details).

2. Many thanks to B. Guy Peters for permitting the author to cite this article.

3. Griffith 1950, Williams 1981, Williams 1985, Davies 1990, Osmond 1995, 2001, 2004, Government of Wales Act 1998, Morgan 1999, Wyn Jones and Trystan 1999, Barry Jones and Balsom 2000, Chaney et al. 2001, Chaney and Fevre 2001, Trench 2001, Howell 2003, 2007, Hazell 2004.

4. The methodological approach used in this article is based on the phenomenological perspective of Merleau-Ponty (1999) who saw any inquiry as being guided by what is sought. Consequently, the meaning of an entity must already be known to the inquirer prior to the investigation and must already be available to us in some way. Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology is a rejection of positivism as he considered that individuals are unable to understand themselves as more than a part of the world. Humans are sociological, biological entities that cannot shut out the world and exist in the realm of science. ‘All my knowledge of the world even my scientific knowledge is gained from my own particular point of view, or from experience of the world without which the symbols of science would be meaningless’ (Merleau-Ponty 1999, p. vii). The constructivist ethnographic methodological approach in this article is based on these ontological and epistemological assumptions. The researcher and researched continually interact and existence is fashioned through the mind (Howell 2004). Data collection through interviews and survey provide the opportunity to build an understanding of AM agency in relation to path-dependency. The nature of this methodological approach illustrates examples of humanity becoming in the world through institutional and cultural construction (Howell 2004). The difficulty is that the researcher's worldview and decisions about which data is important, and which are not, guide observations. Fundamentally, research is value-laden. For this research, participants were involved in the process as we attempted to overcome the power imbalance between the researcher and the researched and provide a democratic structure for the research process. Human beings create reality through participation, experience and action (Denzin and Lincoln 2000).

5. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken in 2001–2002 with, Peter Black AM, Andrew Davies AM (Economic Development Minister), Glyn Davies AM, Ron Davies AM, William Graham AM, Carwyn Jones AM (Open Government Minister), David Lloyd AM, Dafydd Wigley AM and a Civil Servant of the Local Government Finance Division.

6. The total population of the Assembly was surveyed and 60 questionnaires were dispatched, 24 (over 30%) were returned. AMs were asked to agree or disagree with a number of statements on the basis of a Likert Scale.

7. See Bulmer 1994, 1997, Hall and Taylor 1996, Pierson 1996, March and Olsen 1998, Bulmer and Burch 2001, Bulmer et al. 2001, Peters 2001.

8. The Democracy Declaration (1994) was approved by a Constitutional Conference of 250 people who represented local authorities, political parties, trade unions and churches in Wales. Osmond (1995, pp. 171–172) writes that: ‘The conference registered a land mark in Welsh politics. A strong intellectual case for legislative and financial powers for a Parliament was made, as well as internal democracy in its elections and procedures.’ Indeed, important areas for the declaration were an elected parliament, cultural diversity, gender balance, responsibility and greater democracy in terms of electoral procedures and representation, (the Democracy Declaration is published in Osmond 1995, pp. 187–188).

9. Throughout the article, the designation ‘Labour AM (a)’, ‘Labour AM (b)’ etc. will be used to distinguish between the different AMs interviewed.

Notes on contributor

Professor Kerry E. Howell holds the Chair in Governance and Leadership at the University of Plymouth Business School, UK. He is Director of Research for Plymouth Business School, Director of the Peninsula Centre for Sustainable Enterprise and Governance (PCSEG), a Jean Monnet Fellow, Salzburg Seminar Fellow and acted as Chair of the Practitioner Sub-Committee for the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES). He has written a research monograph entitled Europeanization, European integration and financial services: developing theoretical frameworks and synthesising methodological approaches (2004, Palgrave) and published refereed journal articles in the European Journal of Marketing, the Journal of International Banking Regulation, Politics, the Journal of Financial Services Marketing, the Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, Public Policy and Administration, Current Politics and Economics of Europe and Contemporary Wales.