Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations and tables
- List of abbreviations
- Geo-political glossary
- Preface
- 1 Scotland as a political system
- 2 The constitutional inheritance
- 3 The Secretary of State for Scotland and the Scottish Office
- 4 The public service in Scotland
- 5 Parliament
- 6 Political parties and electoral behaviour
- 7 Nationalism
- 8 Devolution
- 9 Local Government
- 10 Organisations and interest groups
- 11 Political communication and the mass media
- 12 The policy-making process
- 13 The Highland periphery
- 14 Conclusion: Scotland in a comparative context
- Postscript
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
14 - Conclusion: Scotland in a comparative context
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 April 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations and tables
- List of abbreviations
- Geo-political glossary
- Preface
- 1 Scotland as a political system
- 2 The constitutional inheritance
- 3 The Secretary of State for Scotland and the Scottish Office
- 4 The public service in Scotland
- 5 Parliament
- 6 Political parties and electoral behaviour
- 7 Nationalism
- 8 Devolution
- 9 Local Government
- 10 Organisations and interest groups
- 11 Political communication and the mass media
- 12 The policy-making process
- 13 The Highland periphery
- 14 Conclusion: Scotland in a comparative context
- Postscript
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
There are two important questions which have to be asked, and, if possible, answered, at the end of this study of the Scottish political system. The first relates to the position of Scotland within the UK. Is the Scottish political system merely a sub-system of the British political system without independent means of support, and without effective power over the ‘allocation of values’? Second, how does one relate the study of Scottish politics to that of comparative government as a whole? Such basic problems, which must arise from the material which has been presented, ought to engage the attention of any political scientist who carries forward the study of the Scottish political system.
Since this work first appeared in 1973, many political scientists have carried forward this study, even if they have not all approved of the concept of a ‘Scottish political system’. John Mackintosh, for example, in a review of the Second Edition(1975), wrote:
to talk of a Scottish politics as a ‘system’ suggests that there is a focal point in Scotland where the various Scottish pressures meet and are resolved before the Scottish input is made into the British political system. In fact this is not the case.
Richard Rose, in his Understanding the United Kingdom (Rose 6), remarks:
Kellas speaks of a ‘Scottish political system’, but the phrase begs the question: What is its government? The answer is very clear: British government is the dominant force in the Scottish political system … Scottish politics is best conceived as a subsystem of United Kingdom politics and government
(Rose 6, p. 52).- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Scottish Political System , pp. 255 - 260Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989