Hill, F. & Shapiro, J. (2014) “Toil and Trouble in the United Kingdom: Why Scotland Won’t Be Europe’s Last Region to Seek Independence“, Brookings Think Tank, 16 September.
On September 18, the people of Scotland will decide whether they wish to remain in the United Kingdom. As the referendum approaches, public attention has focused mostly on the implications of the vote for the future of Scotland and the United Kingdom. Given Scotland’s central role in creating the United Kingdom over 300 years ago, that’s only natural.
But the outcome of the vote, in many ways, is less important than its broader political context — specifically, the festering governance crisis in the United Kingdom and the European Union. The Scottish referendum will likely affect the evolution of this broader crisis, but will not resolve it. To understand why, one first needs to understand the nature of the problem, which results from two intersecting political issues: the status of London in the United Kingdom, and the status of large diverse countries such as the United Kingdom in the European Union.
Relevant posts:
- CER (2014) “The EU and an independent Scotland“, Centre for European Reform Blog, 23 July.
- Βαρουφάκης, Γ. (2014) “If Scotland, why not Greece?“, Yannis Varoufakis Blog: Thoughts for the post-2008 World, 10 March.