A Guide to the Senedd
Understanding Welsh Democracy — 2025 edition
Historical edition notice: This book was written before the 2026 Senedd reforms and describes the electoral arrangements then in force. The election of 7 May 2026 created a 96-member Senedd elected from 16 constituencies, with six Members in each, using a closed-list proportional system. This page therefore presents the book as a record of the pre-2026 arrangements rather than as a current voting guide.
An accessible introduction to Welsh devolution and the Senedd as it operated before the 2026 reforms.
The book was written to explain the development, institutions and electoral framework of Welsh democracy to readers who wanted a concise introduction without assuming specialist knowledge.
Why I wrote this book
Welsh devolution is historically significant, but the institutions and electoral arrangements surrounding it can appear unnecessarily complicated to readers encountering them for the first time. I wanted to produce a short guide that explained how the Senedd had developed, what it did and how representation worked at the time of writing.
The book also reflected my wider interest in Welsh public life, institutions and identity. It was intended as an accessible guide rather than a specialist constitutional study.
Why the 2025 edition is now historical
The constitutional framework changed substantially after publication. At the 2026 election the Senedd expanded from 60 to 96 Members. Wales moved to 16 constituencies, each returning six Members through a closed proportional list system, replacing the previous constituency-and-region arrangements described in the book.
Rather than quietly presenting an outdated guide as current, I now treat the 2025 edition as a snapshot of Welsh democracy immediately before that major reform. Anyone looking for current electoral information should use the Senedd’s official information on the 2026 reforms.
How it fits into my wider work
This is a secondary part of my bibliography rather than a central historical work. Its connection with my broader research lies in an interest in institutions, authority and the ways Wales understands and governs itself. The rapid supersession of the electoral chapters is also a useful reminder that writing about living institutions has a very different shelf life from archival history.
Publication details
- Author: Antony David Davies
- Published: July 2025
- Status: Historical edition; superseded by the 2026 Senedd reforms