Becoming Wales: Devolution as Process

Through ideas relating to identity and culture, this text outlines historical perspectives of Wales and explores path dependency in an institution that has evolved over the past twenty-five years. The notion of “devolution as process” within a Welsh context is investigated in relation to comprehensions and awareness of distinct political and cultural dimensions. Human beings are thrown into communities/societies at a particular time in history where they form identities and make sense of being-in-the-world. Historical events and experiences have sculpted Welsh socio-cultural existence and, during the early twenty-first century, the formation of the Assembly/Senedd incrementally eroded a “democratic deficit” and provided levels of self-determination. Wales is in a perpetual state of becoming and the Assembly/Senedd encompasses a vehicle by which this process may be observed and assessed. Indeed, the Assembly/Senedd reflects conditions of being, which through path dependency and membership agency explicates Welsh identities and cultural perspectives relating to inclusive representation, accountable autonomy, and transparent democracy.