Non-Institutional Forms of Political Participation of Muslim Youth in Modern Scotland

The article examines the main forms and socio-cultural features of the participation of Muslim youth in Scotland in non-institutional politics. As their research goal, the authors chose to identify the mechanisms through which political processes specific to the Scottish context (different from the general British or, for example, the English context) generate various forms of political participation of young adherents of Islam. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study was a significant layer of empirical data (mainly Scottish), comprehended through an interpretive paradigm, which allowed the authors to analyze the non-institutionalized political experience of young Muslims, finding patterns in how Muslim youth perceive and construct the social world around them. The result of the study was an understanding that the strengthening of the “Islamic factor” in the social and political life of Scotland is explained not only by the growth of the Muslim population, but also by the obvious support that the Scottish authorities provide to adherents of Islam. According to the authors, the issue of national and state independence, the specificity of Scottish nationalism, the attractiveness of the political platform of the Scottish National Party for ethno-confessional minorities became the most important primary factors that predetermined the active entry of Scottish Muslim youth into politics. The main conclusion in this article was the idea that the specific socio-political and sociocultural contexts of Scotland create appropriate forms of political participation of young Muslims. Despite the prevailing opinion that Scottish Muslim youth are interested mainly in international events, the authors show a clearly traceable institutional and non-institutional involvement of young Muslims in national and local political issues in Scotland. According to the authors, the non-institutional political participation of young Scottish followers of Islam is manifested in such forms as social movements, activism and charity, and volunteer work.

Party Strength of Regionalist Parties of United Kingdom: Conceptualisation and Measuring

The article conceptualizes the concept of party strength and the measurement of its two quantitative elements (electoral and institutional) by example of four United Kingdom regionalist parties: Scottish National Party, Democratic Unionist Party, Sinn Fein and Plaid Cymru. Based on the analysis of the main theoretical approaches to party strength, the article proposes a method for its measurement, which can be used to measure and evaluate regionalism through the strength of regionalist parties in different political and institutional contexts. Comparing the levels of electoral and institutional party strength allows to highlight several tendencies: growth in electoral strength of UK regionalist parties during 2010s is noted, with stabilization of the institutional party strength; and the gap in the levels of institutional strength of the regionalist parties does not reflect the difference in the level of electoral strength. At the same time, the article mentions the challenges to assessing the strength of regionalist parties, namely, the need for detailed conceptualization of the qualitative characteristics of the party strength and the lack of analysis of the communicative and organizational elements of party strength.

Internal political struggle in Scotland on the issue of the region status in 2007–2011

For the first time in the national historiography, various aspects of the internal political struggle in Scotland regarding its political status in 2007–2011 are considered. The key actors in this struggle are identified, the forms and tools used by various political forces to realise their goals are highlighted, and the issue of the Scottish National Party as a government party is explored. The activity of two organisations – «National Conversation» and the Calman Commission, created at the initiative of two opposing camps of Scottish politics, is analysed. It is noted that as a result of their work, the discussion about the political future of the region was brought to a qualitatively new level, and all the main political forces in the region recognised the need to expand the powers of the Scottish Parliament.

Conservative Revival and the Rise of ‘Others’

This chapter examines the closely fought elections of 2010 and 2015, the first of which produced the first British coalition government since 1945 in a period which saw the continued fragmentation of the party system and the rise of United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and the Scottish National Party (SNP).Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair as Prime Minister in 2007, and initially impressions were favourable. However, almost as soon as Brown had decided against a ‘snap’ election to exploit his popularity, events turned against him and his party. The worldwide global financial crisis, which began in 2007, hit Britain particularly hard, and like Major’s Conservatives in the previous decade New Labour lost its reputation for economic competence. The Conservatives, under David Cameron who proclaimed himself ‘the heir to Blair’, won the largest number of seats in the 2010 election, which was particularly noteworthy for the introduction of televised leader debates. However, the 2010 contest resulted in a ‘hung parliament’ and a coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. The key events of the ensuing five years are examined, including the introduction of a Fixed-Term Parliaments Act which purportedly deprived Prime Ministers of the right to call elections at times of their own choosing. There were also referendums of Electoral Reform (2011) and Scottish independence (2014), in which the status quo was upheld without seeming to put an end to either question. In particular, the SNP continued to prosper despite the 2014 result, and in the 2015 general election it won almost all of the Scottish parliamentary seats. In England, UKIP had become a very serious threat both to Labour and the Conservatives, who had imposed unpopular cuts in public expenditure (‘austerity’) in response to the financial crisis. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats had lost much of their electoral appeal during their ill-fated alliance with Cameron’s Conservatives. The overall result of the 2015 election was an overall victory for the Conservatives, but by a margin which left Cameron vulnerable to Eurosceptics within his party.

Parties, Movements, Brokers

This article is a study of the consequences of brokerage for movements, and particularly for the role of political parties within social movements. My findings indicate that brokerage creates opportunities for minor groups to play a crucial role in mobilization, something that comes at a cost to a movement’s structure. I make my case with a study of brokerage in action, based on activist interviews, events data, and network data collected from the Scottish independence movement. Results demonstrate that the likelihood of the governing Scottish National Party participating in movement events only increases with the number of participating movement organizations. As the movement organizations transitioned from a referendum campaign to an autonomous movement, under-resourced peripheral groups took the lead in brokering the Nationalist movement.

Europe’s Secessionist Movements and Covid-19

For three European states in particular, the Covid-19 pandemic has served to catalyze pre-existing territorial disputes. While the United Kingdom, Spain, and Belgium have all had very different responses to the pandemic, in all three cases the actions of central and regional government have put existing structures of regional autonomy under strain. In Spain, the pandemic response has become intertwined with the Catalan independence debate (especially in disputes between pro-independence parties), and elsewhere in the country it has cemented co-operative relationships between moderate nationalists and the statewide left. In Belgium, the pandemic has accentuated territorial disputes and further complicated government formation. And in the UK diverging responses to the pandemic have helped boost nationalist movements in the devolved nations; particularly the cause of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and their ambitions to create an independent Scottish state. While the year has been highly significant for secessionist movements in all three states, only in the UK does a decisive shift towards state-breakup seem to have occurred. The article argues that whether or not a secessionist movement benefits from the pandemic is highly contingent on contextual factors, including the performance of state-level governments in responding to the pandemic and the relative autonomy of regional governments during the response.

Whatever Happened to the Progressive Case for the Union? How Scottish Labour’s Failure to Subsume a Clearly Left of Centre Identity with a Pro-Union One Helps to Explain Its Decline

This article presents an original account of the tactical options available to political parties in multi-level settings. It applies that framework to the case of post-devolution Scotland via an analysis of First Minister’s Questions sessions in the Scottish Parliament. It shows how Scottish Labour adopted a less left-leaning justification for its stance on the constitutional issue in the years after the party lost power at Holyrood to the Scottish National Party. Consequently, the party failed to present itself as a clearly left of centre alternative to the SNP and downplayed the progressive case for Scotland remaining in the UK.