CELTIC FRINGES AND CENTRAL POWER IN GREAT BRITAIN: HISTORY AND MODERNITY

The article deals with history of interrelations between political centre and Celtic fringes of Great Britain in modern and contemporary times. As soon as nationalist movements in Celtic fringes became more active from the mid 1960s, the need appeared to analyze the history of interrelations between central power and Celtic regions in order to understand causes of Celtic people’s striving for obtaining more rights and even state independence. The article ascertains that attitude of central power to Celtic fringes was complicated by ethno-cultural differences between Englishmen and Celtic people, which resulted in discrimination of Scotland, Wales and Ireland by London's policy towards Celtic regions. Since British industrialization evolved the central power in Great Britain, it created conditions for balanced comprehensive development of industrial economy only in English counties, whereas Celtic regions were permitted to develop only branches of economic activity which were non-competitive to English business. The level of people’s income in Celtic fringes was always lower than in English parts of Great Britain. There was an established practice that English business dominated in Celtic regions and determined the economic development of Celtic regions. The English as distinct from Celts had prior opportunities to be engaged on more prestigious and highly paid positions. Celtic population’s devotion to preservation of their culture and ethno-cultural identity found expression in religious sphere so that Nonconformity and Presbyterianism accordingly dominated among Welshmen and Scotsmen. Political movements in Celtic fringes put forward ethno-cultural demands rather than social class ones in their activities. During the first half of the XX century the opposition between Celtic fringes and central power in Great Britain showed that in parliamentary elections Celtic population gave their votes mainly for the members of Labour Party. From the mid-1960s nationalist movements in Celtic fringes became more active. They began to make slogans of political independence. The author of the article comes to conclusion that interrelations of central power in Great Britain towards Celtic fringes can be adequately described by notions of I. Wallerstein’s world-system analysis and M. Hechter's model of internal colonialism.