Scottish Parliament Elections Research Articles

‘The first, but not the last’: women’s descriptive and substantive representation in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election

The 2021 Scottish Parliament election delivered the most diverse range of MSPs in Holyrood’s history, including a record number of women. We situate the 2021 election within its wider context, evaluating dynamics of party feminisation over time. Drawing on original candidate data and analysis of party manifestos across the main Scottish parties, we assess parties’ substantive appeals to women voters; the integration of different groups of women as candidates, MSPs and leaders; and the adoption and implementation of gender quotas. We find evidence of descriptive and substantive party feminisation in Scotland over time—including increases in both the amount and diversity of party manifesto pledges directed at women voters; improvements in the number and diversity of women selected and elected; and the increasing diffusion of, and inter-party competition over, gender quota measures. Yet we also find that progress has been uneven across parties and that some groups of women continue to be descriptively and substantively under-represented in Scottish politics.

The Scottish Parliamentary Elections and the Transformation of Electoral Behaviour

The rise of the decentralisation or devolution reforms in Europe in the past decades brought scholars' attention to the voting behaviour in multi-level electoral systems. Some types of elections, such as local or regional, might be considered less important for voters than national ones. However, in some regions, the importance of the sub-state level of governance is rising, which might lead voters to change their perception of the regional elections. Since the beginning of the devolution in the UK, the Scottish parliament has become one of the most powerful regional parliaments in Europe. The study reviewed the main differences in electoral behaviour between general and regional elections in Scotland. The analysis used four aspects of the theoretical model of the second-order election. It focused on the turnout in both elections, the success of small and regional parties, the change of support for government and opposition parties and the main campaign topics. The results showed that the Scottish electoral behaviour went through a significant transformation at regional and state-wide level in the past two decades. The different electoral behaviour in regional elections was significantly influenced by the voting system that helped regional nationalist parties increase their support and become the main political force in the region that determines electoral competition. The transformation of electoral behaviour in the Scottish parliamentary election continued to the state-wide level. It determined that the regional elections, in the case of Scotland, cannot be perceived as less important and subordinated to the general elections.

Scottish Parliament Elections 2021.

Scottish Parliament Elections 2021.

Brexit, sovereignty and Conservative unionism in Scotland

The results of the June 2016 European referendum have presented the United Kingdom with a number of significant political and legal conundrums which question both its Constitution and the integrity of the British Union. Although little was made of the territorial dimension of the UK Constitution during the referendum campaign, the complexities involved by the constitutional changes brought by devolution in the late 1990s were immediately exposed. Brexit also laid bare the differences between a unitary understanding of the Union in Westminster and a plurinational understanding of the Union in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, which have been further reinforced by Boris Johnson’s centralist approach to the Constitution. Yet, faced with the rising salience of the Scottish Government’s proposals for a second independence referendum after the SNP obtained a majority of seats in the May 2021 Scottish Parliament election, the UK Government will have to make a convincing case for the British Union if it is to secure its future. This paper thus seeks to explore the shifts in the nature of Conservative unionism since the introduction of devolution and discuss to what extent they have undergirded the Conservatives’ response to Scotland’s constitutional position after the European referendum of 2016.

As You Were: The Scottish Parliament Election of 2021

AbstractThe Scottish Parliament election of May 2021 was an ‘as you were’ election. Vote shares were more or less as in the previous election five years earlier. Barely any seats changed hands and the Scottish National Party (SNP) was left tantalisingly short of a majority. One reason for this stasis is that voting in Scottish elections remains largely an expression of support or opposition to independence—and opinions on that issue are deeply entrenched. Opinions on most other issues, like the pandemic or the Alex Salmond scandal, were mostly driven by constitutional preferences and certainly could not override them. Only Brexit had the power to shift significant numbers of votes. However, because the Conservatives lost Remainers while gaining Leavers and the reverse was true of the SNP, the net result was little change. The entrenchment and polarisation over independence means that this election was never likely to break the constitutional deadlock—and it did not surprise.

Scottish Labour pledges to increase pharmacy training places in election manifesto

The Scottish Labour Party has pledged to increase pharmacy training places in an effort to relieve pressure on GPs, if elected to form a government on 6 May 2021. In its National Recovery Plan, published on 22 April 2021 ahead of the Scottish parliament election on 6 May 2021, the party said it would introduce […]

High noon for the Union?

Next May, the SNP will be defending a fourteen year record in office in Edinburgh. Typically, governments find it difficult to secure electoral success in such circumstances. The 'costs of government' – the almost inevitable gap between a party's initial promises and voters' perceptions of what has actually been achieved – usually take their toll at the ballot box (Green and Jennings, 2017). Yet, even though the SNP administration has had its fair share of difficulties and disappointments during its now lengthy time in office, just how well it has met the challenges of the last 14 years may come to matter little in voters' minds when they decide how to cast their ballot.

The 2016 Scottish Parliament Elections: Unionist Parties and the Constitutional Divide

If voting for the Conservative party had become somewhat of a rarity in Scotland since the Thatcher era, the May 2016 Scottish Parliament election ushered in a new era, as it saw the resurgence of the Scottish Conservatives after they obtained a total of 31 seats. A comparative perspective on Labour and Conservative Party attitudes to devolution and post-devolution Scottish politics will shed light on the electoral demise of the former and the rising fortunes of the latter. This article seeks to examine the main unionist parties’ differences in terms of structural and ideological adaptation to devolution within the broad centre-left consensus that characterizes the current Scottish political landscape.

A United Independence Front? Policy Divergence between the Scottish Pro-independence Parties in the Context of the 2016 Scottish Parliament Election

This article examines policy divergence between the main pro-independence parties in Scotland (the Scottish National Party, the Scottish Greens, and two socialist parties/alliances: RISE and Solidarity) in the context of the 2016 Scottish Parliament election. Even though those parties are all pro-independence and leftwing, the election campaign was defined in a large part by the policy differences between them, as one of the only unknowns of the election was the scale of the SNP's expected victory and whether the smaller pro-independence parties might cost the SNP its overall parliamentary majority. The article analyses the campaign strategy of the smaller pro-independence parties and the SNP's reaction to this strategy. It then looks into three issues which were at the heart of the election campaign and which are major areas of policy divergence between the SNP on the one hand, and the smaller pro-independence parties on the other hand, namely income tax, fracking and the issue of a second independence referendum. The underlying aim of the article is to examine to what extent the Scottish pro-independence parties concur beyond their convergence on the general policy aim of independence, and to question the existence of a united independence front in Scotland.

United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The Scottish Parliament Election 2016: Another Momentous Event but Dull Campaign

The Scottish Parliament election in 2016 produced two surprising results: it represents a reversal of SNP/ Labour party fortunes so complete that we now take it for granted, but the SNP did not achieve a widely-expected majority; and, the huge surge of support for the Scottish Conservatives was enough to make it (easily) the second largest party. A mistaken sense of inevitability of the result – another SNP majority – helped produce a dull campaign and keep alive the prospect of a second referendum on Scottish independence. This article has four main sections: putting the 2016 election in recent historical context; considering the implications of consistently high SNP support on the constitution; highlighting key issues in the election campaign; and, examining the SNP's policy agenda from 2016.

English Votes for English Laws

English Votes for English Laws

Scottish Parliament elections – what are the implications for pharmacy?

Scottish Parliament elections – what are the implications for pharmacy?

The 2015 British General Election: a Convergence in Scottish Voting Behaviour?

The 2015 General Election outcome in Scotland was historic, for several reasons: the SNP won a General Election in Scotland for the first time, it won almost all Scottish seats, and Labour did not win for the first time in half a century. The aim of this paper is to put this undeniably historic outcome into context and into perspective, through an analysis of General Election results in Scotland since 1997 and a comparison between those results and Scottish Parliament election results. It will be argued that besides the obvious ones, the 2015 election outcome was exceptional for another, less obvious reason, namely that it was the result of a convergence in voting behaviour in Scotland for General Elections and for Holyrood elections.

L'étrange cas du référendum sur l'indépendance écossaise. Quelques éléments de comparaison entre les cas écossais et catalan

The Scottish independence referendum of 18 September 2014 was rather unique from an international perspective, as a comparison between the cases of Scotland and Catalonia clearly reveals. Contrary to its Catalan equivalent, the Scottish referendum was perfectly legal and accepted by London, though London could have blocked it by legal and constitutional means. Two reasons explain this. First, Scotland is seen as having a right to self-determination as one of the nations of the multinational UK (whereas Catalonia is not considered as a nation by Madrid). Secondly, the British political class believes in the political doctrine of the mandate, according to which, by winning a total majority of seats in the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections, the SNP won a mandate to organise an independence referendum. This led to a political deal (known as the Edinburgh Agreement) between Edinburgh and London. By contrast, the relations between Catalonia and the central Spanish institutions are governed by constitutional conflict.

Self-determination and the Use of Referendums: the Case of Scotland

The Scottish Nationalist Party’s majority in the 2011 Scottish parliamentary elections opened up a wide and interesting debate on the variety of options for Scotland’s constitutional future (ranging from the status quo through a variety of intermediate options to full independence), and with it, also the innovate possibility of a multi-option referendum, reflecting the preferences of the people of Scotland. However, while the UK Government agreed that the future of Scotland’s place within the Union was for the people of Scotland to vote on, it strongly contested the Scottish Parliament’s competence to legislate for the referendum, thus ensuring a role for itself and the UK Parliament in its design. After a period of negotiations, the UK and Scottish Governments signed the Edinburgh Agreement on the 15th October 2012, enabling the Scottish Parliament to legislate for a single question referendum, and expressing their commitment to work together in the interests of all involved. This article begins looking at the background, legal framework and negotiations leading up to the Edinburgh Agreement. It then argues that, while the Agreement is notably significant and has allowed for the smooth and fast development of the process so far, by excluding the possibility of including a third option of ‘more devolution’ on the ballot paper, it is having a series of negative consequences for the current debate, namely that it is more limited, confusing and uncertain, and largely unbalanced in favour of the ‘no’ side.

A Short Note on Scotland's Future The Internet, Broadband and Telecommunications

The Scottish Government published proposals for the administration of an independent Scotland, its case for a vote in favour of independence in September 2014 and an outline of its manifesto in the Scottish parliamentary elections in 2016. Opinion polls continue to show that only about one quarter of the electorate favouring independence. If there is a vote for independence, Scotland would become a member of the EU and comply with its acquis communitaire, join the Council of Europe, becoming a signatory to its conventions, and join the ITU, adopting its Radio Regulations. However, the provisions for broadband, Internet and telecommunications remain vague and without a timetable. There would be a junior minister within a Ministry of Culture, Communications & Digital, with a multi-sector economic regulator, a media regulator, a competition authority and a consumer protection body. Existing licences would be “honoured”. It is unclear whether the existing UK legislation will be converted into Scottish statutes or whether the EU directives will be transposed from scratch. Considerable attention is to be given to increasing services in rural areas, with calls for more fibre and 4G networks, whereas, the low levels of adoption of broadband in urban areas are ignored. Scotland will not request an ITU country code, but seek to continue to use the UK code of 44. It will not use an ISO 3166 two-letter country code top level domain, but instead dot Scot and existing UK top level domains. Significant omissions include provision for regulators of advertising and gambling. There is no mention of replacement for the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal, perhaps appeals would be heard in the courts. Much will depend on negotiations between the Scottish Government and Her Majesty’s Government in London in the period between September 2014 and independence day on 24 March 2016. A complicating factor is the UK general election in May 2015.

Voters' information behaviour when using political actors' web sites during the 2011 Scottish Parliament election campaign

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a study of voters' online behaviour conducted during the 2011 Scottish parliamentary election campaign. Design/methodology/approach – The study used an interactive, electronically-assisted interview method, where 64 citizens were observed and questioned while they searched for, browsed and used information on the web sites and social media sites of political parties and candidates standing for election to the Scottish Parliament. Findings – While online campaign sites were generally regarded as serving a useful purpose, as being easy to use and understand, relatively interesting and likely to be visited again, there was very little evidence in this study to indicate that they had any significant impact on voting behaviour during the 2011 Scottish campaign. Rather, the participants' comments suggest that more traditional information sources, particularly print and broadcast media, coupled with long-established campaign techniques, such as leaf...

The Conundrum of multi-level politics in the UK after devolution: the case of the Scottish Liberal Democrats in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election

As early as the 2001 general election The Scotsman underlined the dilemma facing the Liberal Democrats post devolution, as the party seemed to be torn between the two levels of governance in Edinburgh and London. Indeed, whereas the Liberal Democrats had been Labour’s partner in government in Scotland since 1999, at Westminster, they were in opposition, and in the British general election campaign, the two parties were rivals in the race for power. Ten years later, the Scottish Liberal Democrats found themselves in the position of contesting the fourth Scottish Parliament election as an opposition party at Holyrood, while being identified with the Conservative party as their coalition partner in government in London since May 2010. How did they come to terms with campaigning in the 2011 Scottish Parliament as a party which had been sitting on the opposition benches in Edinburgh for the past four years, while bearing the brunt of the attacks on the UK coalition government in Scotland? This article will first focus on the specific circumstances which made the campaign particularly difficult to handle for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, before looking into the party’s disastrous election results. Finally it will attempt to highlight the predicament facing the party in Scotland as a result of the multi-level nature of the British political system after devolution.

The 2011 Scottish Labour campaign: changing tactics?

After the setbacks Labour suffered at the Scottish Parliament elections of May 2007, it appeared clearly that the Labour party in Scotland urgently needed to readjust its political strategy and message to the new post-devolution constitutional system. Soon after the May 2007 elections, voices were consequently raised within Labour to stress the need to formulate distinct Scottish policies. Yet, in May 2011, Scottish Labour suffered its worst electoral defeat in Scotland since the UK general election of October 1931 whilst the SNP managed to secure the first electoral majority since the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 in spite of an electoral system explicitly devised to prevent single party government and ensure proportional representation. This paper therefore seeks to study the outcome of the May 2011 election in light of Labour’s political strategies and programme, and analyse the structural problems met by Scottish Labour in its attempt to appeal to the wider Scottish electorate in the context of Scottish Parliament elections. How do the Scottish Labour Party's links with the UK Parliamentary Labour Party affect it in terms of image and policymaking? To what extent is a complete restructuration of the party necessary North of the border and how will this affect politics in Scotland?