Regionalism, regionalisation and regional institutions in Catalonia and Scotland

The Regionalization of Political Careers in Spain and the UK

“…Some exceptions are made when Catalonia's and Scotland's claim to nationhood is dealt with and the meaning is unequivocal. 2 For a more thorough theoretical discussion of the interaction between political professionalization and regionalism, see Stolz (2001Stolz ( , 2010b. 3 In this respect this case selection can be seen to follow Gerring's (2001: 219) logic of "crucial cases".…”

“…Additional information comes from a survey of regional parliamentarians in Scotland and Catalonia and a series of interviews with politicians from both regions. A more comprehensive account of the study can be found in Stolz (2010b). 12 Figures for Spain and the UK are taken from Matland and Studlar (2004), those for Catalonia and Scotland were calculated by the author.…”

Marszałkowie województw jako politycy regionalni

“…Ma to bardzo poważny wpływ na przebieg karier politycznych w większości krajów w Europie Zachodniej. Perspektywa MLG, w tym między innymi prace: Stolz (2001Stolz ( , 2009Stolz ( , 2011 Majcherkiewicz (2016a, b), zwracają uwagę, że stanowiska w polityce regionalnej coraz częściej stają się bardziej atrakcyjne, co powoduje, że są celem, do którego dąży coraz więcej polityków 5 .…”

Solving the problem of social background in the UK ‘political class’: Do parties do things differently in Westminster, devolved and European elections?

“…In Westminster, the decline has been accelerated by the retirement of working-class Labour MPs (from 1945-70, 42% were blue/ white collar), and their replacement with middle-class university-educated colleagues (Keating and Cairney, 2006: 46;Criddle, 2010). In all other legislatures, the number was low to begin with and has not increased significantly since (Keating and Cairney, 2006;Stolz, 2009). In other words, using this measure, devolved and European Parliament elections generally accelerate a trend away from social representation.…”

“…Only Labour appeared to be engaged fully in recruitment reform, according to three measures -equality rhetoric, equality measures, and equality guarantees such as all-women shortlists (AWS) -and its relative likelihood of placing women candidates in winnable seats (Ashe et al, 2010: 456-7;470-4). In the 1990s, Labour made the first significant attempts to increase the representation of women MPs in Westminster, firstly through the introduction of AWS at local level, and later through softer targets that did not contravene new equality legislation, until it passed the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002 to legalize AWS (Russell et al, 2002: 4;Squires, 2010: 83;Rush and Cromwell, 2000;Stolz, 2009). This was followed by a more concerted effort from the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to increase their female representation in the 2000s, resulting in a steady but rather slow increase in the proportion of female MPs -caused partly by a continued reluctance to use AWS or, in many cases, challenge local constituency offices.…”