The SNP’s Pragmatic Nationalism And The Resurgence Of The Scottish Independence Movement Since 2007

The issue of Scottish independence has in recent years become a hot topic in British politics. The climax of it occurred on 18 September 2014, when voters were asked to answer either "Yes" or "No" to the question:"Should Scotland be an independent country?" in the national referendum. Though the result was that 55.3% voters answered "No" and 44.7% voters answered "Yes" and the United Kingdom remained united, this was by no means the end to the issue of Scottish independence. It will still haunt the British Isle in the foreseeable future.Current studies on the Scottish National Party (SNP) mainly cast the attention on either its historical development or its electoral success; on the other hand current studies on Scottish nationalism takes Scotland as a whole as the study object instead of focusing on the role the SNP plays in the nationalist movement. The contribution of this thesis lies in its combination of the SNP and the Scottish nationalist movement, which is the context of later development of political landscape of Scotland. It discusses in detail the SNP’s role in the resurgence of the Scottish independence movement. At the same time, compared with other historical studies, this thesis places particular emphasis on the period after 2007 when the SNP became the governing party in Scotland. By doing so, it is hoped to give a relative updated account of the development of both the SNP and Scottish nationalist movement, thereby adding new contents to current studies.Structurally, the thesis is divided into six chapters. In Chapter 1, the issues and the research questions are put forward. Basic information about Scottish independence and the SNP will also be touched upon. Following this will be literature review about the relevant studies about nationalism especially Scottish nationalism, the SNP’s history, its major elections as well as the independence referendum. Then the methodology and innovation as well as the significance of the study will be illustrated. Chapter 2 provides historical and theoretical contexts of the thesis. The history of the Scottish National Party will be traced in a brief manner. Besides, the SNP’s efforts to pursue Scottish independence will be disclosed in more detail. Also, the de velopments of nationalism and Scottish nationalism will be examined. In addition, pragmatic nationalism will be defined. Last but not least, the relationship between the SNP, pragmatic nationalism and Scottish independence will be illustrated in detail. Chapter 3 provides a political context of the thesis from the perspective of party politics. It will mainly focus on the several major elections of the SNP from 2007 onwards. It will highlight the SNP’s political ideas, its major proposals and its performance in these elections. Chapter 4 will analyze in detail the concrete economic and social policies of the SNP since 2007. Following this, Chapter 5 turns the spotlight to the 2014 independence referendum solely to examine the role the SNP plays during its whole process. The final chapter is the conclusion part.The author maintains that the SNP plays a major role in the resurgence of Scottish independence since the inception of the 21st century. As it is beginning to gain more political momentum since 2007, the independence case is also being furthered. The author contends that the concrete policies and strategies adopted by the SNP especially since it came to office in 2007 reflect a kind of pragmatic nationalism, which means that the SNP will adopt policies best suitable for the circumstances in order to further the independence cause rather than fight it rashly. It is exactly this pragmatic nationalism that contributes to the SNP’s gaining votes as well as brings the issue of independence again to the forefront of British politics. The 2014 independence referendum signified the impact of the SNP’s pragmatic nationalism and the risk it brought to the national unity of the UK.