Abstract/Summary

The aim of this thesis is to address a single research question: “What factors can explain the significant ideological variance that exists within Canadian and Western European national independence parties?” This thesis analyses left-right ideology from two perspectives, the traditional perception of left-right ideology and mainstream-radical ideology, which compares parties from mainstream ideological positions with those from the radical-left and radical-right. This thesis is a mixed methods study. This thesis analyses a newly created database, made up of two datasets of cases of national independence parties standing in both regional and statewide elections, in order to establish patterns regarding what might influence their ideology. The thesis then applies these results to pairs of nested cases, aiming to determine what specific factors might influence the ideological variation found between two different cases through controlled comparisons. When looking at traditional left-right ideology, this thesis compared the Faroe Islands and Greenland and then Flanders and Quebec. When looking at mainstream-radical ideology, this thesis compared the Basque Country and Catalonia and Scotland and Wales. It was found that monarchy, military spending and unemployment influence the traditional left-right ideology of national independence parties. Unemployment was found to be especially influential in both the cases of the Faroe Islands and Greenland and Flanders and Quebec. This thesis also finds that language, competition from a rival national independence party and immigration influence the mainstream-radical ideology of national independence parties. Language was found to be especially relevant when comparing the Basque Country and Catalonia while party competition was found to be most relevant when comparing Scotland and Wales. This thesis adds to the current literature by exploring national independence parties in their own right, rather than looking at regionalist parties more broadly. It also offers a new perspective on a number of different variables which were found to influence ideology, for example, the effect of monarchy.