Welsh nationalism and the challenge of ‘inclusive’ politics

Abstract

Here we examine some of the contemporary challenges facing Plaid Cymru — the Party of Wales, the principal nationalist political party and one of the mainstays of the nationalist movement in Wales. Against the backdrop of the establishment of the first directly-elected national government forum in Wales for 600 years, we present new research and explore how the party's response to the ‘inclusive’ politics of the mid-1990s was central to Plaid Cymru's recent dramatic electoral breakthrough into the political mainstream and how it will be crucial to hopes for its future advancement. We contextualise this as part of this nationalist party's overall transformation during the last 75 years. This has been a journey from espousing an exclusive to purportedly inclusive nationalist ideology. Such development has been shaped along a number of non-discrete axes that include: the geographical spread of the party's organisational structures and electoral support, its readiness to embark upon co-working with other parties and groups, its evolving policy agenda, its stance on the Welsh language and, latterly, its response to ‘inclusive’ politics and constitutional reform. We test what Plaid's former leader has described as, the ‘inclusive philosophy’ underpinning Plaid Cymru's ‘civic nationalism’ against the party's record of engagement with some of the most marginalised groups in Welsh society: women, disabled people and people from an ethnic minority. These groups must be engaged if Plaid's claims of inclusiveness are to be meaningful and it's growing influence in Welsh, U.K. and European politics consolidated. We base our discussion and findings on the analysis of published interviews and documents together with transcriptions of 280 semi-structured interviews undertaken between May 1999 and September 2000. We have interviewed over a third of the Assembly Members of the National Assembly for Wales, key officials, members of Plaid Cymru, managers of ninety membership organisations and over 150 key individuals and practitioners associated with the marginalised groups under study.

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