Debating Scotland: Issues of Independence and Union in the 2014 Referendum
Michael Keating
Abstract
The Scottish referendum of 2014 represented a rare event in advanced industrial democracies. It posed a simple question about whether Scotland should be independent, but this choice hid a spectrum of possibilities and public opinion tended towards a middle ground. The campaign focused on a broad range of economic and social issues beyond independence and engaged a wide swathe of society. The protagonists included the two governments; all the political parties; the official Yes and No campaigns; social movements; civil society; academic researchers; and international actors. Knowing how public ... More
The Scottish referendum of 2014 represented a rare event in advanced industrial democracies. It posed a simple question about whether Scotland should be independent, but this choice hid a spectrum of possibilities and public opinion tended towards a middle ground. The campaign focused on a broad range of economic and social issues beyond independence and engaged a wide swathe of society. The protagonists included the two governments; all the political parties; the official Yes and No campaigns; social movements; civil society; academic researchers; and international actors. Knowing how public opinion was divided, the two sides sought the middle ground, offering respectively an attenuated version of independence and a promise of more devolution. This book examines the key issues and how they were framed and debated including economic issues; public spending; the currency; welfare reform; Europe; and the nature of a future constitution. A consistent theme is that of risk and uncertainty, which both sides sought to use to their own benefit. It concludes with the results of a survey showing the impact of the debate and the critical importance of risk in the decision of the key voters. Public opinion remained divided, with the largest segment of the population still favouring a third way between union and independence.
Keywords:
referendum,
independence,
Scotland,
public opinion,
risk
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2017 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198789819 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: February 2017 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198789819.001.0001 |
