May 13, 2020
Joel Selway (Brigham Young Univ.)
Around the world, we see varying levels of success for regional-nationalists movements. This paper investigates the role of ethnic rhetoric in shaping individuals’ feelings towards subnational identities and their associated political manifestations, including ethno-regional parties, calls for greater autonomy, and language policy. I investigate these relationships and specifically look at the effect of various common components of nationalism that ethnic entrepreneurs choose to emphasize in their rhetoric, e.g. history, language, biology, and regional interests. I test these components in a survey experiment on a quota-based sample in the UK with ~8,000 respondents (approximately 800 per region, including Scotland and Wales). Respondents were presented with a vignette–an op-ed expressing regionalist feelings emphasizing one of the components. The results vary, as expected, based on region. Respondents in regions where significant nationalist movements have been in existence for some time–Scotland and Wales–were generally hard to move, as were those that are more recent administrative creations, e.g. the Northwest and Midlands. Respondents in English regions with a longer historical basis can be swayed by various components, some increasing levels of regional-nationalism close to Scottish and Welsh levels. Additionally, respondents from the South–the “dominant” ethno-region–demonstrate a consistent kickback effect on all dependent variables: exhibiting weaker regional identities and less support for devolution, language policy, and regional parties when primed by the treatments.