How much independence can a small country like Scotland have? Lindsay Paterson argues that throughout the last 300 years the nature of Scottish independence has changed frequently. While nationalists have successfully challenged old forms of autonomy, pragmatic unionists have influenced the outcome of these protests, negotiating workable compromises with England and the wider world.
Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 1,0, Charles University in Prague, language: English, abstract: Scotland is a region in Western Europe with a strong identity and a long tradition of a regional autonomy movement. Since Scotland got its own government in 1999, which is still very dependent on the UK central government, and as the Scottish National Party (SNP) is currently the majority party in this government, independence became an important issue in Scottish politics. The SNP is committed to full constitutional independence of Scotland within the European Union. After 300 years of union, the Scottish are allowed to hold a referendum on their independence in 2014. However, only a third of the population is in favour of this. This paper starts with an explanation of the development of the Scottish independence movement, analyses devolution and the Scottish executive’s ways of influencing European politics. It then goes on to examine EU regional policy 2007-2013 and assesses the impact of various factors influencing the demand for more autonomy.
An unclouded look at territorial autonomy back and forward, 100 years after the establishment of the first "modern" territorial autonomy in a democratic state: the Åland Islands in Finland in 1921/22. Where has autonomy been successful to ensure minority protection and self-government, where has it failed, where is it in crisis, where is it aspired to? In which cases would autonomy settle open conflicts between states and regional communities, and in which cases of national emancipation is autonomy no longer sufficient? In 2021, after 100 years of experience with territorial autonomy in all parts of the world, this concept for solving sub-state conflicts is still underestimated. Background information and assessments on the development to date and on the perspectives for the application of territorial autonomy in various regions worldwide by the author of "The World's Modern Autonomy Systems", conversations with ten outstanding personalities from politics and science in these regions and a foreword by the South Tyrolean politician and scientist Oskar Peterlini, former senator in Rome. Thomas Benedikter is an economist and political scientist, publicist, working for South Tyrol's Center for Political Studies and Civic Education POLITiS.
Independence is ever-present on the Scottish political agenda. This book is the first serious study of the likely road to independence, and the consequences for the Scottish people and the Scottish economy.
This study explores modern Scotland and examines how Scottish politics, culture and identities have interacted within the national and international contexts in the last thirty years. It considers which voices and opinions have proven influential and defining and charts the boundaries of public conversation to and beyond the independence referendum
Scottish nationalism is a powerful movement in contemporary politics, yet the goal of Scottish independence emerged surprisingly recently into public debate. The origins of Scottish nationalism lie not in the medieval battles for Scottish statehood, the Acts of Union, the Scottish Enlightenment, or any other traditional historical milestone. Instead, an influential separatist Scottish nationalism began to take shape only in the 1970s and achieved its present ideological maturity in the course of the 1980s and 1990s. The nationalism that emerged from this testing period of Scottish history was unusual in that it demanded independence not to defend a threatened ancestral culture but as the most effective way to promote the agenda of the left. This accessible and engaging account of the political thought of Scottish nationalism explores how the arguments for Scottish independence were crafted over some fifty years by intellectuals, politicians and activists, and why these ideas had such a seismic impact on Scottish and British politics in the 2014 independence referendum.
