Michael Keating
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199545957
- eISBN:
- 9780191719967
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545957.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics, UK Politics
Support for the old Union is falling in Scotland. This is part of a general restructuring of states in Europe, with the emergence and re-emergence of sub-state territories. The old territorial ...
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Support for the old Union is falling in Scotland. This is part of a general restructuring of states in Europe, with the emergence and re-emergence of sub-state territories. The old territorial management formula, based on redistribution from the centre, no longer holds. Class solidarities no longer favour the Union. Scots increasingly identify primarily with their nation rather than the United Kingdom. The governing class has lost its ability to articulate an ideology of union. Yet public opinion has not been converted to independence. Rather, most people favour deeper self-government, within a new Union. The European context is important, not because Scots are particularly pro-European, but because it lowers the threshold of independence.Less
Support for the old Union is falling in Scotland. This is part of a general restructuring of states in Europe, with the emergence and re-emergence of sub-state territories. The old territorial management formula, based on redistribution from the centre, no longer holds. Class solidarities no longer favour the Union. Scots increasingly identify primarily with their nation rather than the United Kingdom. The governing class has lost its ability to articulate an ideology of union. Yet public opinion has not been converted to independence. Rather, most people favour deeper self-government, within a new Union. The European context is important, not because Scots are particularly pro-European, but because it lowers the threshold of independence.
