| Much focus on the powers of the National
Assembly for Wales has been to discuss whether it should
replicate the powers of the Scotland Parliament. Wales
is a nation in its own right and should not be treated
as Scotland’s younger cousin. Unlike Scotland, Wales
has never had its own legal system and has more in common
legally and economically with the English regions and
culturally with other self-governing European regions.
The public debate has focused on whether Wales should
have Primary Legislative Powers, with some exercising
the view that without legislative autonomy then Wales
cannot truly be self-governing. An Assembly with legislative
autonomy would not provide the Welsh tax-payer with
any greater value than is available at present.
In order to produce legislation to the quality of a
Westminster Bill, the Assembly would have to dedicate
more time to debating such legislation, adversely affecting
its currently responsibilities of delivering policy,
which the First Minister has indicated is very time
consuming in itself. In order to achieve a Bill at a
reasonable standard that could stand up to scrutiny
in a Court, the numbers of Assembly Members and specialised
Civil Servants would have to increase and this is not
a cost that should be considered acceptable for the
sole purpose of giving Wales powers that are already
available to it through the UK Parliament. Delivering
value for money must be considered paramount in any
decision to change the powers of the Assembly, as its
existence can only be justified to the sceptical electorate
in Wales if this is the case.
Despite having legislative autonomy, the Scotland Parliament
is unable to effectively influence the macroeconomy,
as it only has limited financial autonomy, such as income-based
tax-varying powers and this is another reason why the
Scotland model should not be held up as the ultimate
goal for devolution in Wales.
Financial autonomy, which although more electoral attractive
to parties seeking control of regional governments,
does not give a government any significant influence
over the economy, merely the ability to set its own
budgets and overall direction. However, having financial
controls are łthat part of the state organisation which
determines to the largest extent the actual distribution
of power between the separate state levels (Renzsch,
1991) meaning that the introduction of greater financial
autonomy in Wales should be considered a significantly
higher priority than legislative autonomy.
Fiscal autonomy gives a government greater controls
in influencing the economy using demand- and supply-side
methods. The Catalan Parliament has been able to effectively
use its fiscal autonomy to influence both the macro-
and micro-economies, which has led to significant social,
economic and cultural benefits (Redondo-Bellón, 1998).
With the creation of regional Retail Price Indices
(RPI) by the Treasury and monetary policy likely to
handed over to the European Central Bank in the long-term,
greater fiscal management at regional level is going
to become more important. Membership of the Euro will
deliver long-term economic benefits, particularly for
exporters in Wales. However, the side-effects of a single
interest rate needs to be managed at regional level
as at any one time monetary union may benefit one of
the British regions, whilst adversely affecting the
prosperity of another.
Developing the role of the Assembly as a body of economic
competence, as opposed to a legislative body as is the
case with Scotland, would be to the greater advantage
to the people of Wales who would benefit from a regional
economic strategy that is tailored to the economic conditions
and hopes of the nation.
References:
1. Redondo-Bellón, Ignacio (1998) The effects of bilingualism
on the consumer: The case of Spain, European Journal
of Marketing 33 (11/12); pp1136-1160
2. Renzsch, Wolfgang (1991) Dietz Finanzverfassung
und Finanzausgleich, Bonn
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