Independence, social welfare and a fairer Scotland

The main debating chamber of Scottish Parliament

Introduction

This collection focuses on the role of social welfare, and the arguments around inequality and fairness, which featured in the debates surrounding Scottish independence and its alternatives in the run up to the referendum on independence for Scotland on 18th September 2014. It explores the ways in which such issues became increasingly pivotal in these debates and considers the contrasting arguments of those in favour and those against Scottish independence.

This collection accompanies two others: The context for the independence debate, which considers the process of how and why the issue of independence for Scotland came to political prominence in the first decades of the 21st century, and The debate on Scottish independence, which focuses on the main ideas that are being advanced in the debate, the arguments for and against independence for Scotland and what the implications might be for people in Scotland of a Yes vote for independence.

A key theme running across these collections is that while the focus is on developments in Scotland, they have a much wider cross-UK resonance and potential implications. Social welfare represents a particularly potent illustration of this.

Read the first article from the collection

All the articles in the collection

Article 1: Contemporary Scotland: A changing welfare landscape?

Article 2: Scotland: A social welfare laboratory?

Article 3: Scotland: An increasingly distinctive society?

Article 4: Social welfare in the independence debate

Article 5: Scottish values, social democracy and social welfare

Article 6: Social welfare, the social union or a ‘race to the bottom’?

Article 7: Imagining a fairer Scotland and Summary