This report was prepared for the Commission on Public Service Governance and Delivery. It examines what is meant by ‘small country governance’, discusses whether it is a useful concept in Wales, and identifies lessons that might be drawn from international comparators.
It addresses four questions that are directly relevant to the Commission’s work:
- Is the small-scale of governance in countries like Wales less alienating than larger more distant London or Brussels governments, and are international comparisons valuable?
- Is subsidiarity (whereby public service delivery ought to occur at the lowest possible level) a relevant perspective for the Commission to consider?
- What are the best governance arrangements for Wales given the resources at its disposal?
- Does the ‘machinery of government’ and the current structure and organisation of the
- Welsh Government and local public services promote or inhibit effective ‘delivery’?
The available evidence points to five key conclusions:
- ‘Small country governance’ should not be a key issue for the Commission because scale is mediated by other factors such as politics, history, administrative traditions and economic capacity.
- Public policies do not respect being neatly confined to particular levels. Insofar as possible, however, it is helpful when there is a clearly defined separation of responsibilities between different tiers of government.
- There is a limit to the number of tiers that are advisable. More than two tiers in a country the size of Wales is likely to overcomplicate governance and service delivery.
- Many countries have a larger number of small municipalities than Wales but services like education are often delivered at a higher level of government which serves a large population. This might equate to the All Wales level for some services (such as secondary education), or to streamlined local government structures or regional partnerships for others.
- The All-Wales level should mainly be concerned with strategic steering, the distribution (and re-distribution) of scarce resources, the creation of performance incentives for service deliverers and foresight.