Representation in Wales: an empirical analysis of the policy divisions between voters and candidates

Politics in Wales is often portrayed as being relatively consensual when compared with the rest of the United Kingdom and enjoying healthy levels of trust between voters and elites. Recent events like the decision of Welsh voters to reject the European Union membership against the advice of most of...

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Main Author: Trumm, Siim
Format: Article
Published: SAGE Publications 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47237/
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author Trumm, Siim
author_facet Trumm, Siim
author_sort Trumm, Siim
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description Politics in Wales is often portrayed as being relatively consensual when compared with the rest of the United Kingdom and enjoying healthy levels of trust between voters and elites. Recent events like the decision of Welsh voters to reject the European Union membership against the advice of most of its political establishment, however, are calling to question this perception. Using 2016 Welsh Candidate Study and 2016 Welsh Election Study data, this paper evaluates the extent of policy divisions between voters and candidates in Wales. I find that candidates hold more liberal policy positions and are less likely to think of immigration as the most important policy priority. In addition, they tend to favour a different approach to parliamentary representation, deeming it more acceptable for Assembly Members to discard the views of their voters in favour of their own views or those of their party.
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spelling nottingham-472372020-05-04T19:20:09Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47237/ Representation in Wales: an empirical analysis of the policy divisions between voters and candidates Trumm, Siim Politics in Wales is often portrayed as being relatively consensual when compared with the rest of the United Kingdom and enjoying healthy levels of trust between voters and elites. Recent events like the decision of Welsh voters to reject the European Union membership against the advice of most of its political establishment, however, are calling to question this perception. Using 2016 Welsh Candidate Study and 2016 Welsh Election Study data, this paper evaluates the extent of policy divisions between voters and candidates in Wales. I find that candidates hold more liberal policy positions and are less likely to think of immigration as the most important policy priority. In addition, they tend to favour a different approach to parliamentary representation, deeming it more acceptable for Assembly Members to discard the views of their voters in favour of their own views or those of their party. SAGE Publications 2017-11-29 Article PeerReviewed Trumm, Siim (2017) Representation in Wales: an empirical analysis of the policy divisions between voters and candidates. British Journal of Politics & International Relations . ISSN 1369-1481 (In Press) Devolution policy divisions voters candidates representation Wales http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1369148117740284 doi:10.1177/1369148117740284 doi:10.1177/1369148117740284
spellingShingle Devolution
policy divisions
voters
candidates
representation
Wales
Trumm, Siim
Representation in Wales: an empirical analysis of the policy divisions between voters and candidates
title Representation in Wales: an empirical analysis of the policy divisions between voters and candidates
title_full Representation in Wales: an empirical analysis of the policy divisions between voters and candidates
title_fullStr Representation in Wales: an empirical analysis of the policy divisions between voters and candidates
title_full_unstemmed Representation in Wales: an empirical analysis of the policy divisions between voters and candidates
title_short Representation in Wales: an empirical analysis of the policy divisions between voters and candidates
title_sort representation in wales: an empirical analysis of the policy divisions between voters and candidates
topic Devolution
policy divisions
voters
candidates
representation
Wales
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47237/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47237/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47237/