Plaid Cymru - An Ideological Analysis

978 186057 1169
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"valuable...controversial...this book deserves wider notice from those interested in political parties and ideological relations within them."
David S. Moon, Political Studies Review

In this ground-breaking study of Plaid Cymru's political philosophy, Dr Alan Sandry challenges the conventional assumption that Plaid Cymru, a political party that is generally regarded as being the foremost advocates of Welsh nationalism,  conforms to the traditional model of a nationalist party.

The author's exhaustive analysis notes that Plaid's ideology is diverse and complex and in places shares certain political convictions with other political philosophies i.e. an environmentalist Green agenda, a decentralist Liberal agenda and a welfarist Socialist agenda.

He thus contends that since the party's establishment in 1925, nationalism has been erroneously used as a motif or flag of convenience by the party itself and by those who have written about it.

Plaid Cymru An Ideological Analysis is not, therefore, a standard work of political science or merely an historical appraisal of Plaid Cymru. Rather it uncovers the party's philosophical development and it challenges some of the perceptions surrounding the party's ideology.

Dr Sandry, using the ideological model enunciated by Michael Freeden, asserts that Plaid Cymru is not merely a nationalist party but is more of a socialist party, albeit with a complex matrix of underlying ideologies.

Chapters Include 
Ideology and Nationalism 
The Ideological Development of Early Plaid Cymru 
Modern Plaid Cymru and the Ideology of Nationalism 
Other Ideologies Associated with Plaid Cymru 
Concepts within Plaid Cymru's Ideology 
Ideological Debates within Plaid Cymru

Dr Alan Sandry: is a Lecturer in Social and Political Theory at UWIC (The University of Wales Cardiff). He was joint author of Devolution in the UK (EUP, 2007).