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Values, Protest and Minority Nationalism in Wales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2009

Ian McAllister  and
Anthony Mughan
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Since 1945, industrial societies have experienced rapid socio-economic change. Occupational structures have altered to accommodate the new technological skills demanded by many new industries. These newer, smaller and more flexible industries have, in their turn, fostered unparalleled economic growth. Concomitantly, access to education has risen dramatically for all social groups, while the development of mass communications has enabled large amounts of information to be disseminated more rapidly to ever-increasing numbers of people. There is now persuasive and cumulative evidence to show that these profound changes have had two significant consequences for Western societies. Firstly, the values of Western mass publics have altered to place less emphasis on the material aspects of life and a greater priority on aesthetic and intellectual goals. Secondly, there has been a widespread upsurge in popular support for minority nationalist movements advocating some degree of territorial autonomy within their host state or separation from it.

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Notes and Comments
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British Journal of Political Science , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , April 1984 , pp. 230 - 243
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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References

1 See, for example, Bell, Daniel, The Coming of Post-Industrial Society (New York: Basic Books, 1973)Google Scholar and Tourraine, Alan, The Post-Industrial Society (New York: Random House, 1971).Google Scholar

2 This broad theme is expanded in Inglehart, Ronald, The Silent Revolution (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1977)Google Scholar and in two articles by the same author: ‘The Silent Revolution in Europe: Intergenerational Changes in Post-Industrial Societies’, American Political Science Review, LXV (1971), 991–1017Google Scholar and ‘Postmaterialism in an Environment of Insecurity’, American Political Science Review, LXXV (1981), 880–900Google Scholar. See also Knutson, Jeane M., The Human Bases of the Polity (Chicago: Aldine, 1972)Google Scholar; Marsh, Alan, ‘The “Silent Revolution”, Value Priorities and the Quality of Life in Britain’, American Political Science Review, LXIX (1975), 21–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rokeach, Milton, The Nature of Human Values (New York: Free Press, 1973).Google Scholar

3 For an overview, see Esman, Milton J., ed., Ethnic Conflict in the Western World (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977).Google Scholar

4 See Marsh, Alan, ‘Explorations in Unorthodox Political Behaviour: A Scale to Measure “Protest Potential”’, European Journal of Political ResearchGoogle Scholar, and by the same author, Protest and Political Consciousness (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage, 1977).Google Scholar

5 Butt-Philip, Alan, The Welsh Question (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1975), p. 14Google Scholar. For general overviews of Plaid Cymru, see Balsom, Denis, ‘Plaid Cymru’ in Drucker, Henry, ed., Multi-Party Britain (London: Macmillan, 1979)Google Scholar; Davies, David H., ‘The Welsh Nationalist Party, 1925–45: A Search for Identity’ (Cardiff: M.Sc. dissertation, University of Wales, 1979)Google Scholar an Rawkins, P. M., ‘An Approach to the Political Sociology of the Welsh Nationalist Movement’, Political Studies, XXVII (1979), 440–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 See McAllister, Ian, ‘Party Organisation and Minority Nationalism: A Comparative Study in the United Kingdom’, European Journal of Political Research, IX (1981), 245–9Google Scholar. Historically, the two most important instances of violent protest by nationalists were the burning of the Penyberth Royal Air Force Bombing School in 1936, which resulted in the jailing of three leading Plaid members, and the attempts to halt the flooding of the Tryweryn Valley to construct a reservoir in the early 1960s. In regard to the latter case, the party's general secretary said that if ‘violent action… is undertaken in an attempt to force the Government to respect the wishes of the people of Wales, it has ample justification’ (quoted in Butt-Philip, , The Welsh Question, p. 94).Google Scholar

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17 There is, of course, a six-year gap between the Welsh survey and the remaining surveys used in the table, so that comparisons are subject to the normal qualification that some differences may be caused by period effects.

18 Inglehart, (‘Postmaterialism in an Environment of Insecurity’)Google Scholar argues that there has, in fact, been only modest changes in the value priorities of Western mass publics during the 1970s.

19 A factor analysis of these items produced loadings similar to, but not exactly the same as, Inglehart's factor analysis (The Silent Revolution, Table 2.4).

20 The scale was constructed in the following way, exactly in accordance with Inglehart, 's scale (The Silent Revolution, p. 52, footnote 22)Google Scholar. Each respondent was given a score of +2 if both his first and second choices overall were post-materialist and +1 if only one item was post-materialist. Another point was added if the lowest priority overall was materialist; another point was added for each pair of two post-materialist items; another point was added for each pair of two post-materialist items chosen in the first three sets; and one point was deducted for each pair of materialist items chosen among the three sets. Negative scores were coded as zero, and scores of five and six made into five. Scoring the scale on a zero to one metric has the advantage that a metric partial regression coefficient, when multiplied by 100, can be interpreted as a percentage change. For example, a regression equation that produces a metric partial regression coefficient by 0·10 for sex when regressed against, say, Labour partisanship, implies that a male is 10 per cent more likely to vote Labour than a female.

21 Inglehart, , The Silent Revolution, p. 60.Google Scholar

22 Marsh, , Protest and Political Consciousness, p. 180.Google Scholar

23 There are three reasons why we might expect post-materialists to have a greater protest potential. Firstly, their better education and higher occupational status make post-materialists more materially secure, consequently leaving them more time and energy to devote to other concerns. Secondly, these very concerns will have a greater likelihood of generating dissatisfaction with the established political order since post-materialists are, by definition, more likely to challenge the prevailing materialist ethos. Thirdly, the threat of violent protest is likely to be less repugnant to post-materialists since it threatens things they value less than do other citizens.

24 For general introductions to the literature on violence and protest, see, inter alia, Feierabend, Ivo K., Feierabend, Rosalind L. and Gurr, Ted Robert, eds, Anger, Violence and Politics (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972)Google Scholar; Gurr, Ted R., ed., A Handbook of Political Conflict (New York: Free Press, 1980)Google Scholar; Muller, E., Aggressive Political Participation (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1979)Google Scholar; and Nieburg, H. L., Political Violence (New York: St Martin's Press, 1969)Google Scholar. For an explicitly Scottish and Welsh perspective, see Miller, W. L., Madgwick, P. J. et al. , Democratic or Violent Protest? Attitudes towards Direct Action in Scotland and Wales (Glasgow: Studies in Public Policy, No. 107, 1982).Google Scholar

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26 During the 1970s, Welsh language activists damaged television transmitters and disrupted broadcasts in support of a Welsh language television channel. The leader of Plaid Cymru, Gwynfor Evans, also threatened to start a hunger strike on the issue in 1979.

27 Two items, support for rent strikes and the holding of legal meetings, loaded on both factors and were therefore excluded from the final factor analysis.

28 The scales were constructed by scoring the missing values for each component item to the mean, dividing each by its standard deviation, and then summing them. The resulting scale was then converted onto a zero to one metric, for the reasons given in footnote 20.

29 Marsh, (Protest and Political Consciousness, Table 3.6)Google Scholar. Further analyses regressing protest on support for the Conservative, Labour and Liberal parties showed no significant results.

30 Inglehart, Ronald, ‘Political Action: The Impact of Values, Cognitive Level, and Social Background’Google Scholar in Kaase, and Barnes, , Political Action, pp. 356–7Google Scholar. See also Marsh, , Protest and Political Consciousness, p. 185.Google Scholar

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32 Balsom, , Madgwick, , von Mechelen, , ‘The Red and the Green’.Google Scholar

33 Mughan, Anthony and McAllister, Ian, ‘The Mobilisation of the Ethnic Vote: A Thesis with Some Scottish and Welsh Evidence’, Journal of Ethnic and Racial Studies, IV (1981), 189–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar