Ebook: Politics and the People: Scotland, 1945-1979

A study of the interaction between ideology, electoral politics and the constitution in post-war Scotland

• Examines post-war Scottish politics from a distinctive perspective
• Reassesses the decline of Scottish Unionism and the rise of the SNP
• Exploits previously untapped sources, including election materials, local and national newspapers, diaries and memoirs, and interviews with contemporary political figures
• Proposes new directions for the study of twentieth-century Scottish politics, emphasising the role of ideology and rhetoric in shaping political allegiances
• Links historical scholarship with debates in political science and constitutional theory

Petrie reappraises Scottish politics in the decades after 1945, augmenting existing accounts of this period by foregrounding the importance of ideology and language. Founded upon original archival research, the book recovers the central role played within modern Scottish politics by an individualist, anti-bureaucratic critique of central government. Deployed initially by those on the political right to attack the programme of nationalisation implemented by the post-war Labour government, by the 1960s this rhetoric was being exploited by advocates of constitutional change. As liberty came to be framed in constitutional rather than economic terms, understandings of political representation also changed: crucially, the arrival of the referendum in British politics granted credibility to the belief that there existed a distinctive Scottish tradition of popular sovereignty. Focused upon Scotland, this study nevertheless engages with broader debates and will appeal to historians of modern Britain as well as political and legal scholars.