Scotland And Wales: Nations Again?

Edited by Bridget Taylor and Katarina Thomson

pp xlii252 Royal Octavo December 1999 paperback
ISBN 0-7083-1610-7

‘This is an invaluable contribution to understanding contemporary Scotland and Wales and shows that the famine of electoral data is at an end.’ (Scottish Affairs)

`These core findings of the Scottish and Welsh referendum studies are clear and consistent, based on detailed quantitative analysis, and very cogently presented. The book is a paradigm of well-argued quantitative analyses, clearly presented for a wide audience and firmly placed in context . . . a very valuable book on the start of a new era in British electoral studies . . . ' (Parliamentary Affairs)

`. . . fascinating reading . . . Morgan’s piece is a masterful, witty and very readable account of the history of Welsh devolution . . . this will be a much-cited book and clearly essential reading for all interested in referendums, devolution and Scottish and Welsh politics.' (EPOP Newsletter)

‘. . .an important contribution to this growing field . . . excellent volume . . .’ Nations and Nationalism

This definitive study by leading practitioners in their respective fields is the first publication of the analysis and interpretation of the studies by CREST of the electorates in Wales and Scotland at the time of the 1997 devolution referendums. The contributors to the book include members of CREST and colleagues in the Welsh and Scottish research teams, as well as other eminent experts. The distinctive and the common features of the Welsh and Scottish nations are identified through individual and comparative analyses of the characteristics of their electorates and public attitudes, and the referendum process, together with overviews of their political histories and characters. These substantive chapters are accompanied by a preface by the Secretary of State for Wales, plus technical details of the surveys and the survey questionnaires.

CREST is the Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends, an ESRC funded Research Centre linking Social and Community Planning Research, London, and Nuffield College, Oxford.

CONTENTS

Foreword, Steve Smith, University of Wales, Aberystwyth

Preface, the Rt. Hon. Ron Davies

Introduction and conclusions, Bridget Taylor, CREST; John Curtice, University of Strathclyde; Katarina Thomson, SCPR

Referendums, David Butler and Iain McLean, Nuffield College, Oxford

The Scottish and Welsh referendum campaigns, David McCrone, University of Edinburgh and Bethan Lewis, University of Wales, Aberystwyth

The 1997 Scottish referendum vote, Paula Surridge, University of Salford and David McCrone, University of Edinburgh

The 1997 Welsh referendum vote, Richard Wyn Jones and Dafydd Trystan, University of Wales, Aberystwyth

Why was 1997 different? Geoffrey Evans, Nuffield College, Oxford and University of Wales, Aberystwyth

Is Scotland a nation and Wales not? John Curtice, University of Strathclyde

Were the Welsh and Scottish referendums second-order elections? by Anthony Heath and Bridget Taylor

Does civil society drive constitutional change? Lindsay Paterson, University of Edinburgh and Richard Wyn Jones, University of Wales, Aberystwyth

Welsh devolution: the past and the future, Kenneth O. Morgan, FBA

The Scottish political system revisited, James G. Kellas, University of Glasgow