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This paper considers the origins and traces the history of the Social Fund, an ideologically-motivated social policy departure of the Thatcher era. It identifies the controversy, in research communities amongst others, which surrounded the establishment of the Fund, and considers the evidence of recurring difficulties in its practical operation over a thirty-year period. It then turns to the Coalition administration in Westminster’s decision to divest itself of responsibility for key parts of the Fund, devolving such obligations to local authorities in England, the Parliament in Scotland and the Assembly in Wales. The paper sets out a comparison of the approaches being developed to discharge the Fund’s prior responsibilities in the three nations. It concludes that the essential policy thrust lies in a determination to roll back central state obligations in poverty relief and income maintenance which had hitherto been accepted by all post-war administrations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In May 2007 the Scottish National Party emerged as the largest single party in the Scottish Parliament and with contingent support from the Greens it now forms a minority Scottish government. This paper considers the ways in which social policy making is being approached by the SNP and the extent to which this represents divergence from the policies of the previous New Labour-Liberal Democrat administration. The paper argues that while the SNP has no tradition of policy making in the field of social welfare there are already some signs emerging of the direction it is likely to follow. Tensions between economic development and social justice agendas are highlighted with a concern that social justice could take even more of a second place than it has in the recent past. Finally it is argued that a neo-liberal vision of Scotland informs current as well as past policy making and explains why the promotion of social justice is more than likely to take second place to the pursuit of economic growth, reflected in the SNP's goal of transforming Scotland as a 'Celtic Lion' economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines national identity in England and Scotland, arguing that it is necessary to understand how people construe it instead of simply assuming that it is constructed from above by the state. It adds to qualitative data on this issue by discussing recent survey data, from the British and Scottish Social Attitudes surveys 2006, in which for the first time people are asked about their reasons for making a specific choice of national identity. In so doing it fleshes out the responses given to a well known survey question (the so-called 'Moreno' question) providing a greater understanding of what a large sample of people are saying when they make these territorial identity choices. The English and the Scots handle 'national' and 'state' identities differently, but the paper shows there is considerable similarity as regards reasons for choosing national identity. Both English and Scottish 'nationals', those placing greater weight on their 'national' as opposed to their 'state' identities, choose to do so mainly for cultural and institutional reasons. They are not making a 'political' statement about the break-up of Britain. At the British end of the scale, there are patterns in the English data which throw into doubt easy assertions about 'being British'. Simply assuming, as some politicians and commentators do, that 'British' has singular meanings is unfounded. The future of the United Kingdom as presently constituted may lie in the hands of those who describe themselves as equally national (English or Scottish) and British. Devolution influences which national identity people choose in all three sets of national identity categories but these effects are sociologically most interesting in this group. Devolution seems to have encouraged them to stress the equality of the two nations in the British state, recognising that they are equal partners, that one can be equally proud of a national and a British identity, and that it is not necessary to choose one over the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of location formulation in the expression of nationhood in six Scottish newspapers' coverage of a domestic political event The article thaws upon a corpus analysis comparing the incidence of `location lexical tokens' in the Scottish papers with a selection from the UK and England. It finds that the Scottish papers stress the national character of the political process, occasionally doing so alongside an inclusive rhetoric. The article also finds that the Scottish papers mobilize an internal political vocabulary around the expression of location, manifest in the widespread adoption of the political metonym `Holyrood' for the Scottish parliaments and in the use of localized political discourses. The article therefore suggests that explicit reference to the home nation is an important component of news discourse, and that the systematic study of location formulation also offers an insight into the generation of an internal and nation-specific political vocabulary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combination of the impact of welfare reform by the UK government and the opportunity for change presented by the debate on Scottish independence produced a profusion of alternative proposals for social security from scholars, formal political parties, the Scottish Government, and a range of think tanks and civil society organisations. The extent to which these proposals demonstrated considered gender analysis or specific objectives to address economic and social constraints principally experienced by women and arising from the constraints of gender relations varied considerably. This article considers the extent to which concerns for alternative approaches to social security policy reflect a political commitment to women’s economic and social well-being in a future Scotland through an analysis of proposals from key policy documents prior to the referendum and the proposals emerging in the post-referendum period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Scottish National Party’s election win in 2011 produced the first overall majority for any party since the Scottish Parliament’s inception in 1999, despite the proportional representation system that was supposed to prevent single party governments. This historic election has been followed by much discussion of how much further the powers of the Scottish Parliament could be extended and whether devolution would allow Scotland to have a superior welfare settlement. In this context policy divergence has been the major focus of the developing devolution debate but discussions about greater powers or even independence for the Parliament have increased significantly. They are often presented as a means to achieve a ‘better’ or more ‘fair’ society. This article argues that shortcomings in the steps towards fairness achieved under the current arrangements of devolution highlight the need for a far-reaching and innovative approach to social justice to be carried out alongside any further discussions of independence. Such an approach cannot be taken for granted. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is a theoretical and empirical contribution to the study of the Europeanization of political parties. On the theoretical side, it draws on the concepts of heresthetics and two-level games to conceptualize a Europeanization mechanism that has so far been overlooked in the literature. It shows that Europeanization can be a heresthetic tool in party competition, notably in terms of opening up a new dimension that may result in a realignment of alliances able to turn losers into winners. It then applies this conceptualization to party competition over the issue of self-government for Scotland from 1974 to 1997 and shows how it can to a large extent account for a dramatic reversal of fortunes for the anti- and pro-devolution camps between 1979 and 1997. It concludes by relating these theoretical and empirical findings back to the debate on the Europeanization of political parties and identifies avenues for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews recent major developments in key areas in criminal justice policy in Scotland, including the renowned Children's Hearings System, the role of criminal justice social work, the use of imprisonment and the implementation of antisocial behaviour legislation. It explores the extent to which the welfarist approach that characterized Scottish criminal justice pre-devolution has been challenged by the politicization of criminal justice issues and increasing levels of popular punitivism more familiar in England and Wales under the New Labour government. It explores some of the reasons why there has been greater convergence with policy south of the border rather than the divergence which might have been expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The re-establishment of a Scottish parliament in Edinburgh in May 1999 has promised new and innovative developments in social policy. Focusing on poverty and social exclusion, this article considers the likelihood that the approach by the new Scottish parliament will represent a departure from the approach of the Westminster government. There is some expectation that Scotland's experience will be different given the distinctive political and cultural environment, but instead it is argued that the Scottish parliament is very much in tune with New Labour thinking in relation to poverty. The neglect of wider structural inequalities in wealth and income means that the Scottish parliament is unlikely to develop a radical approach which challenges existing structures of inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the prospects for the Scottish parliament to 'contribute to a fairer and more inclusive society' through the use of housing policy. After reviewing concepts of social exclusion and initiatives to increase inclusion, the article considers the powers of the parliament under the Scotland Act 1998. It argues that institutional and resource constraints surround future housing policy interventions and concludes that greater social inclusion is more likely through participation and improved economic prospects than through housing policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]