A Study Of Scottish Independence In The Post-sovereign Discourse

Scottish independence has attracted global attention since 2014 Scottish referendum.This research attempted to use post-sovereign discourse,the key character of modern Scottish independence,as a clue to analyse the modern history of Scottish independence.Post-sovereign discourse is not a perfect theory rather it is a contested discourse,which comes from sovereignty that experienced an array of challenges during the course of several centuries'development.Post-sovereignty is actually a reflection of the post-era in sovereignty.Post-sovereignty,at the same time,has some sort of normativeness and great influence,and it means that sovereignty can be shared to both higher level and lower level.At the higher level various international organizations,especially the European Union,have been established.At the lower level,localism has arisen.Regional movements pursue greater autonomy from central governments,and sometimes this greater autonomy can be called post-sovereign state,which is the goal of Scottish independence movement.Scottish independence movement was an exception among most independence movements around the world.It didn't appear in the 19^thcentury when its neighboring nations,such as Ireland and Germany,were experiencing nationalism.After the First World War,Scottish nationalism arose but it didn't reach a common purpose until1934 when the Scottish National Party?SNP?was founded.In this era,pursuing greater autonomy garnered more support among nationalist movements than pursuing complete independence.The SNP,after poor performance in the next several general elections,became more radical.The SNP reoriented its goal to complete independence in Scotland,and it eventually entered center stage of British politics in 1967.The SNP saw a surge in supportive votes because of the issue of Scottish oil.Both the Conservative party and Labour party attempted to appease the SNP by devolution.The results of 1979Scottish devolution referendum,however,suggested that majority of Scottish people had no interest of changing their current constitutional status.Thatcher's reform in 1980s changed Scotland's economy and society a lot,which made the creation of Scottish Parliament unstoppable.Meanwhile,the SNP experienced a long-term recession in 1980s,which forced them to change their goal from complete independence to independence in Europe.Such post-sovereign independence brought lots of benefits.Europe could guarantee territorial and economic security of an independent Scotland,and Scotland's European identity made it possible.Scottish parliament was founded after the success of 1997 Scottish devolution referendum.But devolution in Scotland went the opposite way of what British government anticipated because of problems brought by devolution and the good strategy of the SNP.In the 2011 Scottish parliament election,the SNP won majority votes,which enabled them to form a new government solely.The independence referendum was on the way.The British conservative government regarded allowing a referendum as a low risk,high profit venture,therefore,the independence referendum was held on September 9,2014.The SNP didn't achieve its post-sovereign goal in this referendum,but it remained a majority party in Scottish parliament in the next election.Brexit in 2016 pushed the SNP to propose a second referendum on Scottish independence.Compared with the union with Europe,unsurprisingly,Scottish preferred the union with the rest of the UK.Therefore,the second referendum hadn't been put into practice.But we cannot consider this as the end of the debate of Scottish constitutional issues,since the roots which promote Scottish independence movement remain.I got four conclusions by studying the history of Scottish independence movements,and the reason of Scottish nationalists'post-sovereign choice.Firstly,the growing desire for post-sovereign independence which has emerged in some European regions,is a fact that we cannot evade,but it is difficult to be recognized by not just sovereign world,but also the supranational level in the sovereign world.Secondly,Scottish post-sovereign independence movement is unique,which means that Scottish post-sovereign choice and the way how British government treated Scottish issues are unique.Thirdly,national policy plays an important role in regional separatism.Failure of British policy to appease Scottish nationalism affords us lessons.Fourthly,nationalists are a minority in Scottish society,whereas most people remain as unionists.Such situation also exists in other regions.Therefore,when dealing with regional separatism issues,we should not only take into account the sentiments of nationalists but of the unionists as well.