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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

Scottish National Party, SNP, internal colonialism, parliamentary elections

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Political Science

Abstract

The Scottish National Party has seen growth and decline more than once since its founding in 1937. The party has struggled in several ways, lacking legitimacy, policy, and electoral opportunities. Since the inception of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, the SNP has found hope for more sustained success and publicity. Seven years later support for the SNP, and along with it Scottish nationalism finally seems to be increasing. The intent of my research was to determine a cause of increased SNP support and hopefully link that cause to a broader theoretical explanation. Several factors are present in Scotland that appear to cause dissatisfaction with the Scottish and UK governments, including discrepancies in average GNP per capita, health standards, and life expectancy. However, all of these factors were present prior to 1999, and the gap between Scotland and the rest of the UK has remained fairly constant since that time. Therefore, I predict that the shift toward the SNP is caused by a change in perception concerning the above-mentioned discrepancies, rather than worsening conditions. The efforts of the SNP to publicize these issues and to change Scots’ perceptions of their own situation has benefited the party, and has made its success possible.

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