This paper focuses on an issue that underpins much of Labour's social and political reforms: civil society. Recent 'third way' treatises, from those by thinkers close to New Labour, such as Anthony Giddens, to Tony Blair's own published thoughts, declare that the regeneration of civil society is one of the primary goals of devolution and decentralisation. This paper focuses specifically on the relationship between the National Assembly for Wales and civil society in Wales, and in doing so examines the substance of the much-trumpeted 'new politics'. The overall objectives of the paper are to demonstrate why the relationship between the National Assembly and civil society in Wales is so important in formulating public and social policy and to assess how the National Assembly is building relations with civil society in Wales.
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