The 2014 Scottish independence debate: questions of social welfare and social justice

Abstract

This paper aims to foreground some of the main ways in which issues of social welfare and social policy came to occupy centre stage in the Scottish independence debate during recent years, culminating in the September 2014 Scottish independence referendum. It considers how issues relating to social welfare and the future of the welfare state more generally were advanced by the pro-Scottish independence YES camp as key arguments in the overall case for independence. This then disputes suggestions to the contrary that the pro-YES movement was a campaign driven primarily by issues of Scottish nationalism and national identity. Instead issues of social welfare, social justice and the creation of a more equal Scotland dominated.