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This book is the first in-depth comparative study of Scottish devolution and the first to analyse the impact of the European dimension. With focus on the periods leading up to the referendums in 1979 and 1997, it investigates positions and strategies of political parties and interest groups and how these influenced constitutional preferences at mass level and ultimately the referendum results. Based on rigorous analysis of an extensive body of quantitative and qualitative sources, it builds a ground-breaking argument that challenges the widespread thesis that support for devolution was a consequence of Conservative rule between 1979 and 1997. It shows that the decisive factors were changing attitudes to independence and the role of the European dimension in shaping them. The book is essential reading for students and scholars of British, European and comparative politics from 3rd-year courses upwards and will also appeal to lay readers interested in contemporary affairs.

The Scottish Government has ambitions to build a new social security system in Scotland with new powers over social security. With the ability to now entirely replace the UK’s Personal Independence Payment, highly controversial for the way it has narrowed entitlement and made the process of applying stressful, the Scottish Government has the opportunity to transform both the experience of disabled people in applying for social security and ensure that what is paid more accurately reflects the costs of disability. However, while significant improvements to the process of applying appear to have been made and these are having a positive impact on access to payment, the Scottish Government’s gradualist approach has also put off by some years more fundamental improvements.

Professors Crawford and Carruthers comment, from a British perspective, on the possible effects of Brexit upon European civil justice harmonisation measures, with particular reference to the Brussels I Recast, Brussels II bis, Rome I and Rome II Regulations.

This article explores the construction of national identity in the coverage of policy issues during the first two general elections after devolution, in Scottish and in English/UK daily morning newspapers. It focuses on a sample of the coverage of the most mentioned reserved and devolved issue in the 2001 and 2005 campaigns and examines the use of markers of location and deictic references to a national context. It finds that the distinction between reserved and devolved matters is not decisive in how these topics are constructed. The Scottish and English/UK coverage of the Iraq war, taxation and health debates at Westminster is relatively similar, written and presumed to be read in Britain. However, Scottish titles differentiate their output by constructing their readers as having little participation in these 'UK' issues, and by emphasizing the Scottish relevance of topics such as fiscal autonomy for Scotland and waiting lists at Scottish hospitals. Even in that coverage though, the relevant national context occasionally shifts between Scotland and Britain. By contrast, newspapers written in England consistently report from an Anglo-British perspective, making no allowance for the changes brought by devolution.

The first comparative study of Scottish devolution over time and the first to analyse the impact of Europe. Rigorously researched and accessibly written. Essential reading for students and scholars of British and European politics.

This chapter shows how the interest groups were played differently in the 1980s and beyond than in the 1970s, especially in relation to the European dimension. It reveals that the Church of Scotland had been isolated in the 1970s due to being both pro-devolution and pro-EU. It determines that the key change in interest groups during this period was on the STUC, which was one of the key actors in the effort to Europeanise Scottish devolution in the 1990s. This chapter also discusses other important changes that occurred between the 1970s and 1990s, which eventually helped increase the influence of the interest groups on the politics of self-government.

The prospect of Scottish independence allowed commentators the chance to reconsider the Scottish Government’s social policy choices. The idea of ‘social investment’ grew in importance since it fits well with the vague notion that Scottish independence is a social democratic project, offering an alternative to ‘austerity politics’ and ‘neoliberalism’. It also complements an existing Scottish Government agenda to reduce inequalities and address its decreasing budget by reducing acute public service demand through ‘early intervention’ and ‘prevention’ policies. However, this chapter identifies a limited impact of such developments on government policy. Social investment is rarely properly defined, and prevention often describes a broad aspiration rather than a specific policy agenda. Policymakers are pursuing a vague solution to an unclear problem. This chapter discusses how key actors can take forward this agenda, to learn from international experience and from domestic experiments with ‘evidence based policymaking’.

This introductory chapter analyses the case of Scottish devolution. It identifies the three main reasons why Scotland serves as an ideal test case for the general hypothesis that European integration raises demand for self-government at the sub-state level. It then presents a brief overview of the main contributions to this book and reviews the literature on Europeanisation, particularly on the Europeanisation of the demands for regional self-government. It gives a brief historical overview of the constitutional position of Scotland within the United Kingdom and of its demand for self-government, including both devolution and independence. This chapter also includes several reviews of relevant literature on the 1979 and 1997 referendums and studies the role of the European dimension in such literature.

This paper provides a multidimensional analysis of Nicola Sturgeon’s political leadership during her tenure as Scotland’s first female First Minister. Drawing on leadership theories, it explores her influence on public policy in key areas such as healthcare, education, gender equality, environmental sustainability, and transportation. The study also examines her pivotal role in advancing Scottish independence and how her media presence and electoral strategies shaped public perception. Additionally, the paper introduces the concept of a regional political leader, using Sturgeon’s leadership style and policy decisions as a framework, particularly in the context of Scottish devolution and nationalist movements.

This highly readable book is a unique, ethnographic study of devolution and Scottish politics as well as Party political activism more generally. It explores how Conservative Party activists who had opposed devolution and the movement for a Scottish Parliament during the 1990s attempted to mobilise politically following their annihilation at the 1997 General Election. It draws on fieldwork conducted in Dumfries and Galloway - a former stronghold for the Scottish Tories - to describe how senior Conservatives worked from the assumption that they had endured their own ‘crisis’ in representation. The material consequences of this crisis included losses of financial and other resources, legitimacy and local knowledge for the Scottish Conservatives. This book ethnographically describes the processes, practices and relationships that Tory Party activists sought to enact during the 2003 Scottish and local Government elections. Its central argument is that, having asserted that the difficulties they faced constituted problems of knowledge, Conservative activists cast to the geographical and institutional margins of Scotland became ‘banal’ activists. Believing themselves to be lacking in the data and information necessary for successful mobilisation during Parliamentary elections, local Tory Party strategists attempted to address their knowledge ‘crisis’ by burying themselves in paperwork and petty bureaucracy. Such practices have often escaped scholarly attention because they appear everyday and mundane and are therefore less noticeable.