Plaid Cymru Research Articles

Ruth Price: creating a nation’s pop scene

ABSTRACT In Wales, during the 1960s, the seeds of a devolved nation were being sown. The Welsh Language Society was established in 1962, and Gwynfor Evans, first Member of Parliament for Plaid Cymru, was elected in 1966. Against this backdrop Ruth Price left her post as headmistress in 1961 to forge a career at the B.B.C. This article traces a career that led to her successful pop music series Disc a Dawn (Disc and Talent) (1966–73) in which she demonstrated an understanding of the vital role pop music had in addressing a youth audience. In doing so, she ensured the cultural capital of the Welsh language amongst young people and demonstrated the importance of light entertainment for public service broadcasting.

The Wilson government, the rise of nationalism and the road to the royal commission on the constitution, 1966-1968

ABSTRACT The Royal Commission on the Constitution was a rare moment when the UK’s territorial governance was considered as a whole. Established as a response to the rise in electoral support for the SNP and Plaid Cymru in the mid to the late 1960s, the Commission was seen by some at the time and others since of being a cynical attempt to kick the constitutional ‘can down the road’. This article is not an analysis of the Royal Commission’s findings, rather it offers an examination of why it came to be established. Drawing on an extensive range of primary and secondary source materials, including Cabinet papers and ministerial correspondence, this paper provides a detailed assessment of the months of debates and deliberations, which preceded the decision to establish a Royal Commission on the Constitution. The by-election successes and unnerving near-misses for Scottish and Welsh nationalist parties at by elections between 1966 and 1968 created a sense within the Cabinet that the Government needed to have a clear response to the electorate. That this response was a Commission only followed an intense process of debate and deliberation within Government that failed to produce a broadly acceptable alternative.

Multi-level empowerment strategies: Regionalist parties’ territory-oriented legislative initiative in the regional, statewide and European parliamentary arenas

In the European Union (EU), parties operate on the regional, the state, and the supranational level. Exploring how parties behave legislatively from a cross-level perspective, this paper evaluates the territory-oriented legislation introduced by three regionalist parties – Südtiroler Volkspartei, Femu a Corsica, and Plaid Cymru – in all parliaments they occupy (from 2018 to 2022). The parties initiate greater self-government, autonomy safeguards, and concrete region-oriented policies in the regional and statewide parliaments. Meanwhile, many specific, state-addressed proposals are generalised to all European regions in the Committee of the Regions and the European Parliament (as are all demands directed to the EU) and concern the protection of ethnic minorities, regional development, and regional involvement in EU policies. Drawing on novel parliamentary data, this three-level study reveals multi-level legislative strategies of a distinct party family aimed at territorial empowerment while exposing available legislative channels and routes of interaction across the levels of governance.

Independence in Europe: Regionalist Party Rhetoric and the EU in a Post-Brexit United Kingdom

Abstract In the wake of Brexit, how has the framing of the EU and independence evolved among regionalist parties in the devolved regions of the UK? The effects of a multilevel structure such as the EU on regionalist parties has been examined, yet European disintegration is novel and thus yet to be fully explored. Has the framing of the EU by these parties shifted, and if so, how? In this article, I analyze 19 regionalist party manifestos between 2011 and 2022 through the lens of rational choice and discursive institutionalism to examine the effects of Brexit on the framing of the EU. At a rhetorical level, these parties have engaged in the subsuming of the EU, rhetorically tying their independence or enhanced autonomy to Brexit. Sinn Féin, Scottish Nationalist Party, and Plaid Cymru have used the critical juncture of Brexit to incorporate the EU into their regionalist rhetoric. By examining the effects of European disintegration on regionalist political parties, we can better understand the role that current events play in the fluidity of party positions as presented in manifestos.

Case Study – Developing a National Research and Evidence Base for The Health and Wellbeing Chapter of The Welsh Government’s 2023 Innovation Strategy for Wales

This paper presents research informing the Welsh Government’s (WG) Health and Wellbeing chapter of the new Innovation Strategy for Wales (ISW). WG recognises the need for a cross portfolio Innovation Strategy to bring greater coherence and alignment to our existing Welsh health and social care innovation ecosystem, particularly in a post EU environment. This approach aims to support greater collaboration between healthcare, industry, academia and the third sector to deliver greater impact and value by developing, sharing and adopting innovative practice, leadership and skills development and supporting new technology development. As part of the development process, key stakeholders were identified as part of an innovation ‘push’ and innovation ‘pull’ nexus approach. Organisations were categorised into domains of health and social care providers, innovation infrastructure, technology platforms, innovation centres, and partnerships across Wales’s health and life sciences ecosystem. A qualitative, action research led approach was used to derive the key themes supporting development of the ISW health chapter. Multi-sector consultations were conducted with experts from various fields, including health, social, care, research, and technology. Our analysis of qualitative data collected through an extensive consultation process led to the emergence of areas of prioritisation for the ISW. Three areas of prioritisation were identified in the analysis: a) Creating coherency across the innovation ecosystem, where every partner understands their role; b) Focusing innovation activity on NHS Wales organisational needs/priorities, generating ‘Innovation Pull’; c) Creating an ‘adoption ready’ pipeline of innovation externally into health and social care at scale, creating an ‘Innovation Push’ offer. The ISW aims to create the optimal conditions for an innovation ecosystem underpinned by clear infrastructure and a robust policy framework, which has the full support from health and social care leadership, to create a culture of innovation at all levels of the health and social care system. The ISW was launched on 27th February 2023, with full political support from the Welsh Government Cabinet; a majority Labour party government supported by the Plaid Cymru party, as part of the Welsh Government’s 2021 election cooperation agreement.

Developing a National Research and Evidence Base for the Health and Wellbeing Chapter of the Welsh Government’s 2023 Innovation Strategy for Wales.

This paper presents research informing the Welsh Government’s (WG) Health and Wellbeing chapter of the new Innovation Strategy for Wales (ISW). WG recognises the need for a cross portfolio Innovation Strategy to bring greater coherence and alignment to our existing Welsh health and social care innovation ecosystem, particularly in a post EU environment. This approach aims to support greater collaboration between healthcare, industry, academia and the third sector to deliver greater impact and value (Davies et al, 2021) by developing, sharing and adopting innovative practice, leadership and skills development and supporting new technology development (WG, 2018). As part of the development process, key stakeholders were identified as part of an innovation ‘push’ and innovation ‘pull’ nexus (Chesbrough, 2003) approach. Organisations were categorised into domains of health and social care providers, innovation infrastructure, technology platforms, innovation centres, and partnerships across Wales’s health and life sciences ecosystem. A qualitative, action research led approach was used to derive the key themes supporting development of the ISW health chapter. Multi-sector consultations were conducted with experts from various fields, including health, social, care, research, and technology. Our analysis of qualitative data collected through an extensive consultation process led to the emergence of areas of prioritisation for the ISW. Three areas of prioritisation were identified in the analysis: Creating coherency across the innovation ecosystem, where every partner understands their role. Focusing innovation activity on NHS Wales organisational needs/priorities, generating ‘Innovation Pull’. Creating an ‘adoption ready’ pipeline of innovation externally into health and social care at scale, creating an ‘Innovation Push’ offer. The ISW aims to create the optimal conditions for an innovation ecosystem underpinned by clear infrastructure and a robust policy framework, which has the full support from health and social care leadership, to create a culture of innovation at all levels of the health and social care system. The ISW was launched on 27th February 2023, with full political support from the Welsh Government Cabinet; a majority Labour party government supported by the Plaid Cymru party, as part of the Welsh Government’s 2021 election cooperation agreement.

Explaining the salience of secessionist party constitutional demands for independence

ABSTRACT Demands for independence have increased across Europe in the last decade, but there are limits to our understanding of what makes secessionist parties more ambiguous or assertive on independence. This article’s original contribution to the literature on regionalist parties in Western Europe is in addressing gaps in understanding of secessionist party strategy. Consequently, its original theoretical contribution is to enrich analysis of secessionist party strategic calculations. It achieves this by advancing analysis of key factors influencing pro-independence parties’ emphasis on their secession claims by modifying a framework of internal and external factors developed by Elias and Mees (2017). It deepens assessment of state-wide impacts on the salience of pro-independence demands, including incumbent central government parties and secessionist parties in other parts of the state. Empirically, the article evaluates the framework’s strengths by examining the case of Plaid Cymru, Wales 2003–2021 drawing on a new dataset and qualitative research.

In search for more ‘authentic’ EU attitudes: re-evaluating regionalist parties’ EU positioning from sub-state parliamentary debates

ABSTRACT This paper responds to the tendency of past scholarship to reduce European Union (EU) attitudes of regionalist parties to one general position. It undertakes a comprehensive analysis of regionalist parties’ EU attitudes from sub-state parliamentary debates. Drawing on three different cases from three territorial contexts – Plaid Cymru, Femu a Corsica and Süd-Tiroler Freiheit, it systematically captures the content and nature of regionalist parties’ EU positioning from EU-related interventions in regional parliaments over a recent five-year period (2016–21). The paper finds that regionalist parties simultaneously adopt a distinct position on multiple EU-related issues (with varying salience and clarity). Importantly, each party constructs its EU attitudes around diametrically different issues, closely intertwined with its regional empowerment strategy and reflecting the unique regional context. Moreover, each party displays contradictory tendencies in its EU support, adopting Europhile positions on some issues, while Eurosceptic on others. This contribution is significant in two ways. First, the thematic variability identified within and across the cases provides an original insight into the full scope and scale of regionalist parties’ engagement with the EU at a given moment. Second, this in-depth qualitative analysis based on novel data advances past methodologies while challenging their conclusiveness about the regionalist parties’ actual EU support.

Incumbency and Identity: The 2021 Senedd Election

Abstract Taking place amid a global pandemic, the 2021 Senedd Election saw Welsh Labour returned as the largest party at the sixth consecutive occasion since the institution’s founding in 1999. Results for opposition parties were mixed: the Conservatives achieved their highest ever vote share but their seat tally fell short of pre-election expectations, and Plaid Cymru again made little progress. Using data from the 2021 Welsh Election Study, we explore the election campaign and results, and offer a first analysis of vote choice. We find that Labour not only benefitted from incumbency advantages drawn from voters’ approval of the Welsh Government’s handling of the pandemic, but through its use of symbols, branding and messaging, the party continues to remain attuned to a national identity position that broadly aligns with that of the electorate as a whole.

Party Strength of Regionalist Parties of United Kingdom: Conceptualisation and Measuring

The article conceptualizes the concept of party strength and the measurement of its two quantitative elements (electoral and institutional) by example of four United Kingdom regionalist parties: Scottish National Party, Democratic Unionist Party, Sinn Fein and Plaid Cymru. Based on the analysis of the main theoretical approaches to party strength, the article proposes a method for its measurement, which can be used to measure and evaluate regionalism through the strength of regionalist parties in different political and institutional contexts. Comparing the levels of electoral and institutional party strength allows to highlight several tendencies: growth in electoral strength of UK regionalist parties during 2010s is noted, with stabilization of the institutional party strength; and the gap in the levels of institutional strength of the regionalist parties does not reflect the difference in the level of electoral strength. At the same time, the article mentions the challenges to assessing the strength of regionalist parties, namely, the need for detailed conceptualization of the qualitative characteristics of the party strength and the lack of analysis of the communicative and organizational elements of party strength.

ІСТОРІЯ НАЦІОНАЛЬНИХ РУХІВ ШОТЛАНДІЇ ТА УЕЛЬСУ: ПОРІВНЯННЯ Й АНАЛІЗ

The article addresses the history of the Scottish and Welsh approaches towards nationalism within the United Kingdom and features inherent in them. Similarities and differences between the Scottish and Welsh independence movements have been shown. Analysis of historical underpinnings of the creation of the Scottish National Party and the Party of Wales has been conducted. Influence of the Scottish and Welsh nationalism’s unique characteristics on the parties’ electoral performance has been analyzed. Research on the Scottish and Welsh independence movements from the perspective of Anglo–Scottish and Anglo–Welsh relations has been carried out. Influence of the British colonial empire on the suppression of the nationalistic tendencies in Scotland in Wales has been demonstrated. Scottish and Welsh societies’ special features concerning the differences between the independence movements in these countries have been analyzed. Causes of the relative success of the Scottish independence movement and reasons behind the relatively low popularity of nationalism in Wales have been identified. Based on the tendencies in the Scottish and Welsh societies, an analysis of future outlook of the Scottish National Party and the Party of Wales has been conducted. Special attention is paid to the 1979 and 1997 referendums on the restoration of the Scottish Parliament and creation of the National Assembly of Wales. Research on the causes of the referendums has been carried out, electoral preferences have been demonstrated, differences between the Scottish and Welsh national movements and different levels of home rule support among the Scottish and Welsh have been shown. It is argued that independence movements in Scotland and Wales are different in their nature, from which stem the Scottish national party’s and Plaid Cymru’s contrasting electoral results. It is demonstrated that the causes of such electoral performances are not only the historical underpinnings that have shaped both countries throughout centuries, but also the differences in Scotland’s and Wales’ economic development and the ideological distinctions within the Scottish and Welsh independence movements.

Progressive home rule?

Progressive home rule?

Left-wing regionalist populism in the ‘Celtic’ peripheries: Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party’s anti-austerity challenge against the British elites

The article shows how the main regionalist parties in Scotland and Wales—the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru—have engaged with a populist discourse in the wake of the Great Recession. Based on a qualitative analysis of party manifestos and party-elite interviews, the article shows that the two parties have adopted a left-wing populist discourse, based on a critique of austerity policies. In this way, albeit from distinctively regionalist perspective, they performed roles very similar to that of other contemporary left-wing populist parties, particularly in Southern Europe. The Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru were able to frame their anti-austerity stances within a populist discourse because all three traditional British parties shared a preference for pro-austerity economic policies. Therefore, in Laclau’s terms, the two ‘Celtic’ parties’ attack on austerity constituted an open challenge to the hegemonic discourse of the British ‘power bloc’. Analogous to the expansion of a right-wing anti-establishment protest in British politics (monopolized by the UKIP), the two parties (particularly the Scottish one) capitalized on the expansion of a left-wing populist area. This strategy has lately become less viable because Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party broke with the pro-austerity consensus among British elites.

“A fo Ben bid bont”: New Directions for Plaid Cymru? The Ceredigion Result in the UK General Election of 201

The narrow win after two recounts of Plaid Cymru’s Ben Lake in the Ceredigion constituency at the June 8th General Election could be seen as heralding a new dawn in the fortunes of the Party of Wales. Ceredigion itself stood out in the UK as the most pro-EU region in the country in a poll taken before the EU referendum, a trait that was borne out by the county’s 54.63% vote for Remain. This is therefore a part of the world that is something of a paradox: this extremely rural constituency – some of the least densely-populated parts of the UK are to be found within its boundaries – melds together a variety of co-existing communities: old and new, tourist-orientated coast and agricultural hinterland, low-wage labourers and high-earning university staff. It is home to some of the strongest Welsh-speaking areas in Wales whilst witnessing an exodus of its young people and in-migration from beyond its borders. The present paper will seek to examine what the Ceredigion result may indicate by focusing on the question of the youth vote and the possible spearheading of a change in Plaid tactics regarding the question of independence for Wales, a position that has rarely found any support among core Plaid voters in rural Welsh-speaking Wales. We will also seek to zoom in on the ‘Arfor’ plan, a Plaid-backed vision of new regional governance for the West of Wales, in which language planning and economic development go hand in hand. Could this new polity stave off the worst effects of Brexit in Ceredigion and enable the county to put an end to “this steady, silent haemorrhage” that “saps the life of nearly every town and village the length and breadth of the county”, as reflected in the words of Ben Lake’s maiden speech in Westminster?

Exploring the Descriptive Representation of Women: The Case of the National Assembly of Wales

With the devolved institutions nearing their 20th anniversary, the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly have changed the face of politics within the United Kingdom. The National Assembly for Wales, in particular, has made extensive advances in the field of female representation, notably being the first devolved legislature to achieve perfect gender parity. However, the question remains as to whether this parity was achieved through luck or design. This dissertation draws on the work of Pitkin to identify the importance of the relationship between both substantive and descriptive representation and then explores the concepts and contemporary academia to identify the leading theories within this field. The National Assembly will then be analysed in order to establish the measures that have been put in place by the institution in order to protect and promote a commitment to the equality of representation. Four political parties within the National Assembly for Wales will be assessed including the Welsh Labour Party, Welsh Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Conservatives drawing on evidence from 1999–2016. Both chapters will draw upon semi-structured interviews conducted with the Diversity and Inclusion Team and female Assembly Members from across political parties in order to allow for conclusions to be drawn as to what the most influential factors have been in the success of the National Assembly’s female representation, and whether the Assembly has been successful due to luck or design.

More Stable than Strong: Women’s Representation, Voters and Issues

Theresa May’s unexpected accession to the Tory leadership after the historic EU Referendum meant that for the first time since 1987, the General Election was called and contested by a female Prime Minister. The election was notable therefore for an abundance of leading female figures, more so than any previous election. May and Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish National Party (SNP) leader, dominated the post-Brexit narrative for some months (their meeting on the subject leading to the controversial ‘Legs-it’ front page in the Daily Mail) whilst female leaders such as Leanne Wood (Plaid Cymru), Arlene Foster (Democratic Unionist Party) and Caroline Lucas (co-leader of The Green Party) also formed part of the campaign. Despite repeated assurances to the contrary, May called the election after formally triggering Article 50 and just eight weeks prior to the opening of negotiations to establish a deal to leave the EU. May sought to present herself as a strong and competent leader who would make use of her reputation as a ‘bloody difficult woman’ to negotiate the best deal possible. Our analysis assesses the importance placed on women during the campaign by firstly discussing how women were portrayed. We then go on to discuss the parties’ attempts to appeal to women voters through an analysis of their manifesto offerings, before discussing how women actually voted. Finally, we analyse the extent to which the representation of women in parliament was altered as a result of the election.

Seeking Evidence for a Welsh Progressive Consensus: Party Positioning in the 2016 National Assembly for Wales Election

This article provides a detailed analysis of the policy positions advocated by the five political parties that won seats in the 2016 elections to the National Assembly for Wales (Welsh Labour; Plaid Cymru; the Welsh Conservatives; United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and the Welsh Liberal Democrats). It takes advantage of a unique dataset of party positions and justifications created for a Voter Advice Application website that ran during the election campaign: www.wales.electioncompass.org. The data collected reflects the responses of senior policy officers within each party to a series of 35 policy questions. This dataset is used to estimate the extent of party disagreement across each policy question as well as to create a matrix of inter-party similarity. These quantitative findings are supplemented by a discussion of the positional justifications proposed by the parties to the project.

Finding a niche? Challenger parties and issue emphasis in the 2015 televised leaders’ debates

Do leaders of ‘challenger’ parties adopt a ‘niche’ strategy in national televised debates? This article answers this question by analysing the content of the two multiparty televised leaders’ debates that took place ahead of the 2015 British general election. Using computer-aided text analysis (CATA), it provides reliable and valid measures of what the leaders said in both debates and develops our theoretical understanding of how challenger-party leaders make their pitches. It finds that the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Green Party, Scottish National Party (SNP) and Plaid Cymru leaders all demonstrated a degree of ‘nicheness’ in their contributions in comparison with the Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Labour leaders. It also finds that the challenger-party leaders placed a greater emphasis on their core concerns. Nevertheless, the debates covered much policy ground. Their structure obliged all party leaders to talk about a broad range of issues.

Welsh Politics after the EU Referendum

This paper examines the electoral and ideological contest that has taken place between Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru in the five National Assembly elections that have been held between 1999 and 2016. Both parties have found success when they have managed to combine effective leadership with a coherent programme and a strong sense of Welsh identity. However, the Welsh vote to leave the EU in the June 2016 referendum has dealt both parties a poor hand in speaking up for Welsh interests. Can they find a common cause in working together and also with Scotland to take Wales forward in a progressive constitutional direction?

Do stateless-nationalist-regionalist-parties differ from other party types? Comparing organisational reform processes in Plaid Cymru and the Scottish national party

There has been a tendency to treat Stateless-Nationalist-Regionalist Parties (SNRPs) as special cases when compared with other party types. With the spread of sub-state governmental institutions across Europe, recent literature on SNRPs has started to look at these parties from an institutional perspective compared with more traditional approaches. Despite a vast amount of literature covering party organisation, the way in which SNRPs reform their party organisation and how sub-state institutions shape that organisational reform has been given little attention. This article aims to partially address this gap by analysing the organisational reform processes of two SNRPs, Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party. The article argues that these two particular parties are indeed very similar to other party types in this regard, albeit in the context of party specific contexts. The article draws on a number of interviews conducted with elites from both parties, as well as a range of relevant documentary sources.