Research

Our research projects are led by experts in their field and explore up-to-date issues and trends affecting Wales, the United Kingdom, Europe, and beyond.

Our research falls under six main headings:

• Constitution, Law, and Justice
• Criminal Justice
• Elections
• Governance Across Borders
• Political History and Culture
• Wales Fiscal Analysis

Constitution, Law, and Justice

Through research, public engagement, and scholarship, the Wales Governance Centre plays a central role in advancing informed and authoritative debate and influence on Wales’s constitutional, legal, and governance future.

WGC researchers examine how the UK’s territorial constitution functions in practice and its implications for Wales. This includes leading discussions and contributing expertise on constitutional and governance arrangements, intergovernmental relations and the role of devolved, UK, and European institutions - providing analysis that feeds into broader UK‑wide and comparative constitutional debates.

The Centre’s scholarship has had demonstrable impact on UK and Welsh legislation and policymaking. Its research has contributed to the development of a more stable and sustainable constitutional settlement for Wales and to the organisational development of institutions, including the Senedd, in light of recent constitutional reforms.

WGC’s work on justice and the law critically analyses how Wales operates within a shared England and Wales legal jurisdiction. Working with partners in the justice system, our researchers are developing expertise on areas of substantive and procedural law as well as the administration of justice in Wales. Such collaborations ensure that the development of the law in Wales is informed by expert analysis, robust evidence, and an informed public debate

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Criminal Justice

The Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University has been at the forefront of producing original and high-quality academic research on the operation of the Welsh criminal justice system for over a decade.

The work of those involved in the Criminal Justice stream has led the way in uncovering and exposing a range of challenges and problems facing the criminal justice system in Wales. These include those relating to racial inequality, women in prison, alternative criminal justice models, the legal economy, and the fact that Wales boasts the highest imprisonment rate in western Europe. Its pioneering work on the criminal justice system in Wales presaged intensive engagement with the Commission on Justice in Wales through the Centre’s Justice and Jurisdiction (2018-2020) project, which was partly funded by the ESRC, Welsh Government, and Cardiff University. In 2022, the University of Wales Press published the landmark study The Welsh Criminal Justice System: On the Jagged Edge, which provides the first academic account of the Welsh criminal justice system and how it operates across devolved and reserved responsibilities.

Those working within the stream are concerned with all aspects of the Welsh criminal justice system and are committed to communicating expertise and research to a diverse range of audiences. This activity includes providing oral and written evidence to inquiries in the House of Commons and Senedd, supporting teaching activity across the School of Law and Politics, attracting postgraduate research students, and engaging with Welsh Government, civil society and the media.

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Elections

The Wales Governance Centre is a leading hub for elections research across the UK. We provide authoritative analysis of electoral behaviour, voting patterns, and democratic participation in Wales and the wider UK context, including work in Scotland, England, and Northern Ireland. Our research informs public debate through regular media commentary, expert analysis, and publicly accessible outputs including blogs, briefings, and reports.

Our elections work encompasses large-scale survey research through initiatives like the Welsh Election Panel Survey, Future of England Surveys, State of the Union Survey, Scottish Election Study, and a partnership with ITV Wales and YouGov to run the Barn Cymru polls. These examine how voters engage with multi-level democracy across devolved and Westminster elections.

This research has directly shaped electoral reform in Wales, with our work leading to votes for 16- and 17-year-olds and informing the expansion of the Senedd from 60 to 96 members alongside changes to the electoral system for the 2026 election.  Our researchers regularly deliver independent analysis to media outlets, policymakers, and decision-makers across all four UK nations, ensuring evidence-based understanding of electoral dynamics shapes democratic reform and representation throughout the United Kingdom.

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Governance Across Borders

The WGC’s Governance Across Borders (GAB) stream brings together academics who are interested in understanding cross-border dimensions of law and politics, governance and policy from a territorial perspective.

Across a variety of substantive subjects, those working within the stream are concerned with borders and territoriality in complex multi-level settings. Thus, the stream is dual in nature with research based around policy subjects and around systems and institutions/actors. While a key strand of this work is Wales specific, the stream also explores issues across different levels including that of other devolved nations, the UK, the EU and beyond. It includes comparative research and work on other territorial cases. As well as continued interest in the EU dimension, the stream includes research on the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, the implications of new domestic arrangements as well as the new UK-EU relationship for inter alia governments, legislatures and civil society across – and beyond – the UK.

All Governance Across Border academics are actively involved in knowledge exchange and public engagement activity. This activity includes providing oral and written evidence to Parliamentary inquiries, advising Governments and Parliaments, authoring policy-focused briefs and reports, participating in policy and public events, authoring blogposts and media appearances.

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Political History and Culture

The Wales Governance Centre’s Political History and Culture research stream brings together scholars examining the ideas, values, and cultural forces that have shaped Welsh politics in both historical and contemporary contexts. Drawing on history, political theory, and political philosophy, the interdisciplinary stream advances understanding of the principles underpinning key Welsh political institutions, from the emergence of political parties to the development and evolution of devolution.

Alongside institutional analysis, researchers foreground the pivotal role of political actors in shaping Wales’s political trajectory, including activists, politicians, and intellectuals whose ideas and actions have influenced political change. Current research encompasses party political thought, Welsh Labour dominance, constitutional development, party activism, the welfare state, and political ideologies.

While Wales remains the primary focus, the stream situates Welsh political culture within wider international and comparative contexts, demonstrating both Wales’s global connections and its value as a distinctive polity. Through books, peer-reviewed articles, blogposts, and public-facing events, the research stream contributes to academic scholarship while actively engaging public debate and enhancing wider understanding of Wales’s political past, present, and future.

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Wales Fiscal Analysis

Wales Fiscal Analysis (WFA) is a research body within Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre that undertakes authoritative and independent research into the public finances, taxation, and public expenditures of Wales.

The WFA programme adds public value by commenting on the implications of fiscal events such as UK and Welsh budgets, monitoring and reporting on government expenditure and tax revenues in Wales and publishing academic research and policy papers that investigate matters of importance to Welsh public finance, including the impact of Brexit on the Welsh budget and local services, options for tax policy, and the economics and future sustainability of health and social care services in Wales.

Working with partners in Scotland, Northern Ireland, the UK, and other European countries, we also contribute to the wider UK and international debate on the fiscal dimension of devolution and decentralisation of government.

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