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Wales as East Germany

 

I have long thought that Wales’s party system resembles that of the old German Democratic Republic (popularly known as East Germany), which disappeared from the stage of history in 1990.  It was a totalitarian dictatorship, with Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin being its guiding lights, and yet it had a plurality of parties, each offering a choice in minor areas, but all underpinned by the same basic ideology of Communism. Wales has been looking increasingly like that since at least 2007, four parties which are the same store, but with differently coloured store fronts. Imagine my surprise then when I chanced upon an academic submission to by Professor Russell Deacon to the Independent Constitutional Commission to consider Wales’ future, chaired by Professor Laura McAllister and Dr Rowan Williams. Professor Deacon  may be somewhat less harsh than me on the Welsh political landscape, but his views point in the same direction. His submission is below.

You can find out more about the government and politics of Wales here.

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Democracy in Wales and in the Senedd is based around an elite system of government rather than a plurality system in which power is shared between a number of different sources of power. In addition, Wales is what is called a dominant party system in which one party, the Labour Party, controls or drives the central levers of power in Wales in Welsh Government and across most of local government. It can also do this at the UK level through the Westminster Parliament. There is a theoretical chance than Labour could cease to be the dominant party and there be a change of government, but this would involve the replacement of Labour hegemony by either the Conservatives or Plaid Cymru and the electoral history of Wales and the electoral system make this extremely unlikely. In addition, both Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Liberal Democrats’ determination not to work with the Conservatives on a Welsh national level also mean that there is no real alternative to the dominance of the Labour Party.

 

The political parties themselves are very intolerant of public dissent, anything that damages their own public image or can undermines their public persona. This philosophy  pervades the public sector in Wales. The image and vision of these bodies is nearly always that of the elite at the top and determines all central decisions, unchallenged and not the other staff or consumers of that body.

 

As well as a lack of political plurality there is also a lack of plurality in those institutions that normally are seen to challenge or hold the government to account. Due to the perpetual nature of Labour government in power, their ability to hold the purse strings, the tools of patronage and power progression and development of both institutions and individual career aspirations across Wales has been aligned with Welsh Labour Government policies and aspirations. In addition, there has developed an Iron Quadrangle between the Welsh Senedd/Government – Academia (mainly Cardiff University) – Welsh media (mainly BBC) – Welsh quangocracy or supported bodies, in which individuals either move back and forth between them, serve in both or sometimes all four at the same time. Often, it’s hard to determine who is working for which body and to whom they are accountable if anyone at all. The ‘incestuous nature’ of the Iron Quadrangle means also that is frequently draws upon its own members and recycles them into the posts held within its domain. It also often ensures that such appointments lack scrutiny or challenge.

 

This Iron Quadrangle has developed an elite from whom nearly all of the central decision makers come in Wales. At the same time the politicians are mainly drawn from Welsh local government or other elements of the party machine. To give the delusion of this not being a solely Welsh elite from time-to-time people will be drawn from other elites to act as figureheads for this Welsh elite. This has major consequences for democracy in Wales:

it means that a culture has developed within public institutions and much of the public and private sector in which there is little public criticism of the Welsh Government policies because there is no real benefit in doing so, it can result in funding being withdrawn, careers be restricted. The result is that much the Welsh Government does lacks any external scrutiny.

 

A civic culture has failed to develop in Wales because firstly the government holds the main purse strings and seeks only to develop those bodies the reward the members of the iron quadrangle or endorse their own agenda/won’t act as a challenge to their own powerbase or funders within Wales don’t want to damage relations with the Welsh government by funding anybody that may be critical of it. There is no interest outside of Wales in funding and developing any civic culture in Wales. In London, where the bulk of the money lies to develop civic culture, they are centrally concerned with developing ‘pro-British culture’ in Scotland to seek to ensure it stays in the Union.

 

The Iron Quadrangle acts in a bubble, it consults amongst it’s own elites and related bodies. As it is very busy within it’s own networking it has the impression that Wales knows what it does and it knows what Wales is up to. Having worked amongst students and staff and have served on the council in South Wales, Mid Wales and West Wales and running a think tank I can be certain that for the vast majority of people there is no knowledge about what the Welsh Government and Senedd do, it’s impact on their lives or how they can interact with it or even if this would be worthwhile. At the same time, I have seen no interest paid in the students or staff to rectify this by MSs or the Welsh Government. Very few have visited the Senedd, seen or spoke to an MS or even know who they are. There is no contact between them and in this respect being governed from London or Cardiff would seem to be exactly the same.  

 

There is widespread mismanagement of policies and largescale waste of government monies within public institutions. A culture of secrecy in which there are harsh punishments for challenging, revealing or even criticising this prevails, this is particularly the case in education, specifically the management of universities and within the NHS. There are no channels or bodies that keep these to account in an effective manner.  They can often be very similar to baronial fiefdoms in their power models with the senior figure going unchallenged and removing any figures that decent or get in the way of their own agendas. Those bodies that do also often have members drawn from the Iron Quadrangle.





 



 

 

 

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