Abstract
Efforts are underway to develop a stronger political science perspective regarding the practice of language policy to establish language policy as a distinct field of public policy studies. The article’s original theoretical contribution is to develop a framework, grounded in historical institutionalism, to analyse the multi-level institutional factors that influence language policy choices relating to regional or minority languages within European multi-level states. The framework is tested by applying it to analyse the multi-level factors that condition language policy decisions regarding the Welsh language, and through further investigating the framework’s significance and robustness to analyse language policy trajectories in two contrasting European cases. Overall, the article makes the case for the strengths and adaptability of the framework in producing convincing explanations of the multi-level dimensions of language policy development in different institutionalised contexts and calls for greater investigation of its ability to analyse other regional and minority languages in Europe.
Highlights
In sociolinguistics, language policy is conceived as a diffuse mechanism guiding language use patterns in varying social contexts (Johnson, 2013)
Efforts are underway to develop a stronger political science perspective regarding the practice of language policy to establish language policy as a distinct field of public policy studies
The analysis highlighted that configurations of institutional-agency interactions are key to language policy decisions, with the party system often playing a pivotal role in facilitating these processes
Summary
Language policy is conceived as a diffuse mechanism guiding language use patterns in varying social contexts (Johnson, 2013). Over recent years, a series of trends, including immigration, sub-state nationalism and cultural globalisation, have underlined the extent that linguistic diversity characterises most modern societies. These circumstances have increased awareness of the political, economic and cultural significance of governmental language policy decisions. This article responds to this research gap by seeking to advance a distinctive political science approach to the study of language policy. It seeks to deepen understanding of the political origins of distinctive language policies by identifying the types of factors that drive particular language policy choices. The article’s key theoretical contribution draws on historical institutionalist ideas to develop an original analytical framework to demonstrate its usage to rigorously analyse the multi-level institutional factors that influence language policy choices in relation to European regional and minority languages (RMLs)
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