Welfare, equality and social justice: Scottish independence and the dominant imaginings of the ‘New’ Scotland

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on the extent to which issues of equality, social justice and social welfare have been mobilised in the most prominent imaginings of an independent Scotland. Since 2011 the Scottish National Party (SNP) Scottish Government has repeatedly argued that any future independent Scotland will be characterised by a strong commitment to a distinctively Scottish social welfarism. This paper explores the main tenets of such claims noting that while the myths of Scottish distinctiveness in this respect have long been critiqued, they remain central to the visions of what Scottish society is, and what it could become. Drawing on specific framings and understandings of Scotland’s past, leading SNP politicians have made claims that a new Enlightenment in Scotland could act as a ‘beacon’ for progressive policy-making across the rest of the UK and Europe. This new Enlightenment would be underpinned by the ethics of equality and social justice and the market and economic growth would be servants rather than drivers of social change. In critically exploring these claims to Scottish distinctiveness, this paper focuses on a particular area of social policy, childcare. It is argued that policy-making, as well as the SNP vision for the future, focus on areas of concern that have a lineage back to Enlightenment ideas – investing in childhood as a means to make a better society. It highlights the challenges of combining a market-driven childcare strategy with a social investment approach. The paper aims to promote a critical engagement with the unfolding ‘imaginary’ of any independent (or more devolved) Scottish society, a society in which a globally competitive economy can deliver important socially just goals.

KEYWORDS:

• Social and public policy
• devolution
• nationalism
• care
• neo-liberalism
• Scotland

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Gerry Mooney is Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Criminology in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Open University in Scotland. He has written widely on various aspects of social and welfare policies, devolution, poverty and inequality, class divisions and criminal justice. Among other publications, together with Gill Scott, he edited Social Justice and Social Policy in Scotland (Policy Press, 2012).

Gill Scott is Emeritus Professor in Social Policy at Glasgow Caledonian University. She has written widely on social inclusion, social policy and Scottish devolution and acted as policy adviser to government at Scottish, UK and European level. She was co-author in 2012, with Gerry Mooney, of Social Justice and Social Policy in Scotland.