Abstract:
The concept of a nation-state has only emerged over the last couple of centuries. Before this point, less advanced and coherent states managed the affairs of the populace. The nation-state is the overlapping of two separate features. The nation is the identity that individuals relate to within society. This can exist on its own, as all that is needed is for a person to feel that they have a connection with others on no more than shared belonging. The state is used to take national feelings of loyalty and use them to effectively govern people’s lives. The state is almost like a governmental overlay for a national identity to operate within.
Scotland can be seen in this light because it is a fine example of what nationhood looks like, without the apparatus of the state to cloud the picture. Scotland has this dual identity of Scottish nation within the confines of a British state. In answering this question, it is necessary to investigate the origins of modern nation-states.
Firstly, examining what the term ‘Nation-State’ means by breaking it down into its two parts. Lastly, I will examine how accurate a term the ‘Nation-State’ is when applied to Scottish society. The ‘Nation-State’ is a recent phenomenon, with most of human history being founded on stateless societies. These stateless societies refer to the tribal and clan systems that existed across the globe, before the emergence of larger societies such as Empires and Kingdoms. These societies were able to function as they were relatively small.
The whole or at least a large part of the community could be involved in any decision that needed to be made, although because of their size complex decision-making processes were needed. With the increase of population and the subsequent competition for limited resources, systems started to emerge that could handle the new demands.
Economies started to produce more than what was required by the community, so the surplus was traded with neighboring communities. This process also created the need for higher authority to govern the transactions between the communities. These embryonic communities developed into what can be described as traditional states, with a sovereign leader such as a King or Emperor who ruled absolutely. They could do this because they held the reins of the state’s military forces. In Max Weber’s view, this was the critical component of any state.
For a state to be legitimate, it must have a monopoly on the use of violence within the confines of its own territory. However, usually, this was only a last resort, and the ordinary people were quite unaware of the state developing around them. A limited form of government would emerge to ensure that the Head of the State could rule effectively. Up until the Industrial Revolution, this was the most common form of the state in Europe. Since the industrial revolution, the demands of modern society and its increasing skilled populous have meant that traditional states have been swept away. Nation-States now cover the surface of the world, and with few exceptions, all the world’s population can claim to be a citizen of a nation-state.
The nation-state is a combination of two different terms; a nation or a state can exist quite independently of each other. The nation consists of a community that shares a common language, values, and customs. The nation can be broken down into four parts. The narrative is where the customs and stories of the nation are kept alive by people retelling them to the next generation and also by reinventing them so that they take on new relevance to the people. People consider the nation to be an ancient symbol that keeps them in touch with their past and previous generations. This connection gives people a sense of belonging that all people seek in their lives.
The ancient aspect of nations can be overplayed as many are of a quite recent origin. This last point is important as historical accuracy is not always of the highest priority when the myth of a nation is being retold. In fact, sometimes the tradition can be of pure invention, but if it serves the purpose of creating identity for the people, then it will survive and flourish. The Victorian invention of tartan in Scotland is a perfect example of this fabricated history suiting the needs of an alienated populous. Lastly, the purity of the race is often cited as a requirement for membership of a nation. This purity often takes the shape of possessing certain physical and mental requirements, such as all Swedish people are tall, blond, and blue-eyed or that black people cannot be identified as being British because of their colour.
Again, this point is open to debate as all nations are a mixture of different cultures and races. However, this purity is something that people strongly identify with.
The concept of a state can be viewed as the infrastructure that is needed to run a society effectively. This is characterized by the creation of three different elements: a political apparatus, territory, and laws. The state needed a separate political apparatus from the general community that can govern the subjects or citizens. This will include setting up decision-making processes that are usually quite remote from the ordinary subject. A state must have a defined territory over which it claims to rule. Over time, these boundaries can be amended due to the process of expansion or invasion with neighboring states. Lastly, there needs to be some form of legal system that can uphold the laws of the land and give legitimacy to its rulers. This institution also means that any laws which have not been upheld can be legally enforced by the use of the military or police force.
Europe has for the last couple of centuries been developing the concept of nation-states. This has also occurred across the rest of the globe over the period of the twentieth century. These nation-states contain all the characteristics of a state, but contain three more distinct characteristics: sovereignty, citizenship, and nationalism. The old forms of the state found it hard to centralize power effectively and therefore could not really use the absolute power that sovereignty entitled them to. Sovereignty could be more easily exerted by the state over its population in these new states because they had better-defined territories, more effective central government, and improved social infrastructures. All of this allowed people, information, and goods to travel throughout society a lot more effectively.
Traditional states operated at a level where only a few of the populous held the state’s power, and in fact, most of the people cared little about the state. Nation-states’ populations are all citizens, which means they all have common rights and duties towards the state. This change to a two-way process of state membership means that people better identify with their citizenship of the nation-state. The rise of nationalism and adoption of national symbols creates a stronger bond between the people and the state. The sense of national identity promotes unity within the community.
Scotland as a nation has been evident since the Romans invaded Britain in the first century AD. The population has changed much since its Celtic origins, with invasion and immigration playing a part in changing the character of the people. Before the Act of Union in 1707, Scotland existed as an independent state with all the hallmarks of a traditional state. However, because of the Union of the Crowns in 1603, Scotland had shared its monarchy with its English neighbor. The Act of Union dissolved the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh and transferred all political control, with representation, to the Parliament in London. Scotland still retained some of the institutions that it held when it was an independent state: the Education system, Legal system, and the Presbyterian Church.
Since the Union, these three institutions have kept alive the separate identity of the Scottish Nation within the British State. Political power has been partially transferred back to Scotland in the shape of the Scottish office, which has since the 1890s exercised power over Scotland. Recently, the debate of some form of devolved Parliament being set up in Edinburgh to further enfranchise the Scottish nation has more relevance as the recently elected British Labour Party has this as a policy. Scotland can be seen to have all the characteristics of a nation with institutions such as the education system, which perpetuates the Scottish culture, or at least a Scottish slant on modern society, to future generations. The Church in Scotland can also be seen to have done this task as it has remained separate and distinct from its English cousin.
Scotland has clearly defined boundaries, but in reference to a state, it is divorced from being sovereign within its own territory. With over three hundred years of economic and social integration with its more powerful neighbor England, it is amazing that Scottish culture has managed to survive to the extent that it has. When states are usually absorbed, the dominant culture can be seen to eradicate the weaker culture. To a large extent, this can be seen to have happened with the old “Scots” language almost extinct and Gaelic only being spoken by a small minority of modern-day Scots.
Many of Scotland’s icons and symbols bear little resemblance to the Scotland of pre-1707, but these same items do bear a relation to what modern-day people feel it is to be Scottish. Pipe bands, tartan scarves, kilts, and rolling glens all existed in the past but have been used by modern Scotland to create a separate identity of its own within the larger British state. Not all of the changes that have happened within the British state have harmed Scottish interests. Since the Union, Scotland has enjoyed much better economic fortunes than it could have ever hoped for as a small independent European state.
Scotland of 1707 and of 1997 are two very politically different countries, with less than one percentage of the population holding a voting franchise in 1707. Today, this includes nearly all the adult population. State apparatus can be created against the backdrop of no nation, like in Yugoslavia and many of the post-colonial African states. This means that because Scotland has a strong sense of nation, it could become a nation-state.
In conclusion, Scotland is a nation that is submerged within a host state. Although this host state does not directly damage Scottish interests or discriminate against its citizens, the ultimate power of government lies in foreign lands. The state apparatus holds this power, and as is the case with any nation, the uneven relationship between nationhood and self-determinism will always grate on the general will of the people. The British Empire, from which Scotland benefited, has left in its wake a country that has enjoyed influence beyond its size, but now must, like the rest of Britain, carve out a new identity for itself.
The case of a Scottish nation is not in question as it is evident that a separate identity and culture do live and thrive north of the border. The question is how this difference can be managed within a larger structure without the disintegration of the larger state, or is this inevitable.
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