Eighteen years ago, the Welsh voted crushingly against setting up their own parliament and ending centuries of English rule.
Decisive though that four-to-one "no" vote might have seemed, Wales is to be asked again on Thursday whether it wants its own national assembly, and opinion polls suggest that this time it might just say "yes."But the polls also point to an extremely low turnout, reflecting widespread Welsh apathy toward any change in the status quo, unlike the Scots who voted resoundingly last week for their own parliament.
The assembly, or "Senedd," that Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor government has proposed for Wales is a pale imitation of the Scottish one. It would have neither tax-raising nor law-making powers.
It reflects how Blair, who has made Scottish and Welsh devolution central to his plans for British constitutional reform, has to placate both sides of a deep cultural divide in Wales.
Wales has only existed fitfully as an independent state - the last time for about two years in the early 15th century following rebellions led by Welsh national hero Owain Glyndwr.
Like the Scots, the Welsh have a distinct culture of poetry, music and Celtic language, but it is celebrated by only a small proportion of the 3 million population.
Only around one-fifth speak Welsh, and most of these live in the mountains of the north.
Most of the rest speak English and regard themselves as primarily British. The people of the prosperous south in particular are wary of the northern Welsh speakers and their fervent nationalism, fearing they would dominate any Senedd.
Although Welsh-speakers are hugely outnumbered, their success in advocating their cause has been dramatic.
Road signs and official documents are in English and Welsh even in areas where there are no Welsh speakers for many miles. Government-financed Welsh language television is said to be the most heavily subsidised in the world.
But they have never succeeded in winning for Wales the institutions that would mark it out as a nation state. Scotland has its own church, its own legal system and prints its own bank notes. Wales has none of these.
"In many ways the Scots are able to feel themselves to be a separate nation in a way the Welsh cannot," said Rodney Barker, a devolution expert from the London School of Economics.
"Voting `yes' is partly a desire to vote for something you have not got, but it is also confirming something you already have," Barker added.
The weakness of Welsh desire for nationhood is reflected in support for the Welsh nationalist party.