National Identity and Constitutional Change in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, 2001 and 2003

This dataset arises from the survey work undertaken by four closely co-ordinated projects, which were part of the <i>Devolution and Constitutional Change</i> research programme of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The principal aim of the projects was to establish whether initial reactions to the introduction of devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland enhanced (or otherwise) the legitimacy of the United Kingdom and the new institutions themselves.<br> <br> More specifically the projects aimed to find answers to the following questions:<ul><li>Did the introduction of devolution change the distribution of national identity?</li><li>Did support for the UK political system rise or fall?</li><li>Were patterns similar or different across the four territories?</li><li>Can any changes that have occurred in national identity and so on be attributed to devolution or to other processes such as generational change?</li></ul>There were in addition a number of country-specific issues, for example, support for regional government in England. The objective of the survey research was to provide a firm empirical basis on which to study these questions.<br> <br> This dataset is derived from several existing sources:<ul><li><a href="http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/findingData/bsaTitles.asp" title="British Social Attitudes Survey"><i>British Social Attitudes Surveys</i></a>, 2001 and 2003, produced by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen)</li><li> <a href="http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/findingData/ssasTitles.asp" title="Scottish Social Attitudes Survey"><i>Scottish Social Attitudes Surveys</i></a>, 2001 and 2003, produced by NatCen and the Scottish Centre for Social Research</li><li><i>Wales Life and Times Study (Welsh Election Study), 2001</i> (held at the UK Data Archive (UKDA) under SN 4546), and <i>Wales Life and Times Study (Welsh Assembly Election Study), 2003</i>, (SN 5052), which were produced by the universities of Wales (Aberystwyth) and Oxford, and NatCen</li><li><a href="http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/findingData/niltTitles.asp" title="Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey"><i>Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey</i></a>, 2001 and 2003, produced by the Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive (ARK)</li></ul>The copyright of the data taken from these surveys rests with the original producers (see copyright statement below).