Alice Brown

What are Scots' expectations of their new Parliament? What influenced them when they were casting their votes in the first elections? What social policies do they want the Parliament to pursue? How do they see the future of Scotland's relationship with the rest of the UK and the rest of Europe? And how does the country's new constitutional status relate to people's sense of national identity? The book analyses Scotland's first parliamentary election in May 1999, and looks to the future of Scottish politics, Scottish social attitudes and Scotland's relationship with the rest of the United Kingdom. Written by the leading authorities on Scottish politics and society, it provides a definitive account of social and political attitudes in Scotland at the beginning of the new parliamentary democracy, and at a time when Scotland's relationship with the rest of the United Kingdom is undergoing radical change.

Substantially revised and rewritten in the light of the 1997 General Election and Devolution referendum, the 2nd edition of this widely-used text provides an up-to-date assessment of Scottish politics under Blair and the likely impact of the new Scottish Parliament. The book focuses in particular on Scotland's constitutional position within the UK; its system of policy making; the nature of the Scottish economy; and the changing patterns of party electoral and grass roots politics. An important feature is its focus throughout on the relationship between culture, identity and ethnicity and that between politics and civil society as it has developed since the Act of Union in 1707.