Progressive home rule?

Abstract

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Incumbency and Identity: The 2021 Senedd Election

“…This pattern of vote switching between elections for different levels of government is well-documented and has been systematic since the establishment of devolution. There is ample evidence suggesting that a substantial proportion of the electorate think of themselves as a supporter of the Labour Party at Westminster elections and Plaid Cymru at devolved elections (see Trystan et al, 2003;Wyn Jones and Scully, 2006;Wyn Jones and Larner, 2020).…”

“…The survey consists of four waves (one pre-election, two post-election, plus an additional rolling campaign wave) and employs a panel design to re-interview as many of the same respondents as possible. To track changes in attitudes, preferences and behaviours of the same respondents over time, the 2021 study also includes a large number of respondents who took part in the 2019 WES (Wyn Jones and Larner, 2020) and 2016 WES (Scully et al, 2016)-comprising, respectively, 32 and 40% of the 2021 survey. The survey's large sample size coupled with its panel element provides an unrivalled source to study political behaviour and attitudes in Wales.…”

How Do Small Nations Cooperate? An Action Research Framework for Wales and the Basque Country

“…The socio-political contexts of Wales and the Basque Country have been shaped by their respective histories. Wales was annexed by England in the thirteenth century and has been a part of the United Kingdom since the Act of Union in 1536 (Morgan, 2007(Morgan, , 2014Wyn Jones & Larner, 2020. In contrast, the Basque Country has a long history of independence struggles, with the Basque nationalist movement seeking autonomy or independence from Spain (Zabalo & Saratxo, 2015).…”

Back to the future?

“…This has led to a story of Welsh devolution that, in policy terms, has been "pretty unimpressive". 28 Even still, these figures do not reflect the aims of a government with progressive intentions.…”