Conclusion

Abstract

This book has examined how well the Scottish public think they are being governed now that devolution is in place. It has also analysed the incidence and nature of national identity in post-devolution Scotland. In so doing, the book has examined and evaluated many of the key claims that were made about what devolution would deliver for Scotland. Some of the worst fears about the impact of devolution on the quality of Scottish democracy do not appear to have been realised. Elections to the Scottish Parliament may not have particularly high turnouts, but they cannot be dismissed as unimportant ‘second-order’ affairs in which those who do vote do so primarily on the basis of what is happening at Westminster. In providing Scotland with its own distinctive national political institutions without doing harm at least to support for the Union, the devolution project can be said, so far at least, to have delivered. However, getting the public actively engaged in the working of that mechanism has proved to be a rather more elusive objective.