Books
A selection of books written by our academic staff.
The Referendum that Changed a Nation
Full title: The Referendum that Changed a Nation: Scottish Voting Behaviour 2014-2019
Authors: Ailsa Henderson, Robert Johns, Jac Larner and Christopher Carman
Date published: November 2022
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9783031160943 (Book) / 9783031160950 (eBook)
Drawing on data from the Scottish Referendum Study and subsequent Scottish Election Studies, this book provides the first in depth analysis of how voters engaged with the independence referendum in 2014 and what impact this has had on vote choice, polarisation and engagement in Scotland since then.
The book contains eight chapters, and discusses how voters engaged with the referendum campaign, explains vote choice by examining reactions to the cues of parties, leaders and events, and compares the importance of these to calculations about risk.
The Referendum that Changed a Nation: Scottish Voting Behaviour 2014-2019.
The Welsh Criminal Justice System: On the Jagged Edge
Full title: The Welsh Criminal Justice System: On the Jagged Edge
Authors: Robert Jones and Richard Wyn Jones
Date published: October 2022
Publisher: University of Wales Press
ISBN: 9781786839435 (Book) / 9781786839442 (PDF) / 9781786839459 (Epub)
Based on official statistics and in-depth interviews, this is the first academic account of the operation of the Welsh criminal justice system across the 'jagged edge' of devolved and reserved powers and responsibilities.
It portrays a system that not only presides over some of the worst criminal justice outcomes in Western Europe, but a system that is also structurally incapable of attending to its own problems.
The Welsh Criminal Justice System: On the Jagged Edge.
Englishness
Full title: Englishness: The Political Force Transforming Britain
Authors: Ailsa Henderson and Richard Wyn Jones
Date published: March 2021
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198870784
A major new analysis of Englishness as a political force, this book uses unique survey data to show that English Euroscepticism is strongly linked to a sense of grievance about England's place within the United Kingdom.
The book makes a number of new and compelling arguments about Britishness, including the extent to which Britishness means very different things in different parts of the Britain, and that British identity aligns with different - in some cases opposite - political attitudes across England, Scotland, and Wales.
Englishness: The Political Force Transforming Britain.
The European Union and the Northern Ireland Peace Process
Full title: The European Union and the Northern Ireland Peace Process
Author: Giada Lagana
Date published: December 2020
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 978-3-030-59116-8 (Hardcover) / 978-3-030-59117-5 (eBook)
‘The European Union and the Northern Ireland Peace Process’ provides the first comprehensive study of how the EU contributed to the peace-building project in Northern Ireland, a topic which has been of crucial importance to debates over Brexit and future relationships in these islands. The book demonstrates that the relationship between Northern Ireland and the EU has been much more significant in the peace process than previously suggested.
The Fascist Party in Wales?
Full title: The Fascist Party in Wales?: Plaid Cymru, Welsh Nationalism and the Accusation of Fascism
Author: Richard Wyn Jones
Date published: April 2014
Publisher: University of Wales Press
ISBN: 978-1783160563
For decades, otherwise highly respected figures in Welsh life have repeatedly claimed that Welsh nationalists sympathised with Fascism during the dark days of the 1930s and the Second World War. In this path-breaking book, Wales’s leading political commentator assesses the truth of these charges.
In addition to shedding new light on the attitudes of Plaid Cymru and its leadership during the period in question, this book offers an insightful and challenging interpretation of the nature Welsh political culture.
The Fascist Party in Wales?: Plaid Cymru, Welsh Nationalism and the Accusation of Fascism.
This book is also available in Welsh.
Citizenship after the Nation State
Full title: Citizenship after the Nation State: Regionalism, Nationalism and Public Attitudes in Europe (Comparative Territorial Politics)
Edited by: Dr Ailsa Henderson, Professor Charlie Jeffery, Daniel Wincott
Date published: November 2013
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 978-0230296572
An outstanding cast of contributors led by Charlie Jeffery, Ailsa Henderson and Daniel Wincott, confront the idea of ‘methodological nationalism’, that is the uncritical choice of the ‘nation-state’ as a unit of analysis that dominates postwar social science. It looks within the state to a regional-scale unit of analysis.
Using specially collected data from 14 regions across five European states Citizenship, After the Nation State explores how citizens define and pursue collective goals at regional scale as well as at the scale of the ‘nation-state’.
Citizenship after the Nation State: Regionalism, Nationalism and Public Attitudes in Europe.
Wales Says Yes
Full title: Wales Says Yes: Devolution and the 2011 Welsh Referendum
Authors: Richard Wyn Jones and Roger Scully
Date published: March 2012
Publisher: University of Wales Press
ISBN: 9780708324851
Wales Says Yes provides the definitive account and analysis of the March 2011 Welsh referendum.
Drawing on extensive historical research, the book explains the background to the referendum, why it was held, and what was at stake.
The book also explains how the rival Yes and No campaigns emerged, and the varying degree of success with which they functioned.
Wales Says Yes: Devolution and the 2011 Welsh Referendum.
Equality and Public Policy
Author: Paul Chaney
Date published: January 2011
Publisher: University of Wales Press
ISBN: 9780708323267
Equality of opportunity is a contested concept. It evokes strong emotions from proponents and opponents alike.
Enduring issues of inequality and discrimination mean that it remains at the forefront of political priorities in the twenty-first century. Traditional analyses tend to focus on developments at the level of the unitary state or European Union.
In contrast, this book underlines the salience of multi-level governance and offers the first detailed comparative analysis of contemporary efforts to promote equality of opportunity in the wake of constitutional reform in the UK.
Europe, Regions and Regionalism
Author: David M Farrell and Roger Scully
Date published: October 2010
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (13 Oct 2010)
ISBN: 9780230231788
The tide of ‘Europe of the Regions’ rhetoric that dominated much political discussion and thinking in the 1980s and 1990s has gradually ebbed. Governance in Europe today may be characterised as ‘multi-level’, but the nation state remains the dominant level for many purposes. Are Europe’s regions, and European regionalism, therefore of little – and diminishing – consequence? This book addresses this question by examining the experiences of regions and regionalism across western, central and eastern Europe.
Europe, Regions and Regionalism.
Representing Europe’s Citizens?
Author: David M Farrell and Roger Scully
Date published: May 2007
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 9780230231788
The past 15 years have seen declining public support for European integration, and widespread suggestions that a legitimacy crisis faces the European Union (EU).
Many in the EU have believed that this problem could be effectively tackled by vesting greater powers in the European Parliament (EP), the Union’s only directly-elected institution.
The central argument of this book is that, while considerable efforts have been made to increase the status of the EP, it is in crucial respects a failure as a representative body.
We cover public policy, political economy, politics and government, and the law of Wales.