A New Class for a Renewed Nation: The Changing Social Basis of Support for Scottish Independence

Abstract

Tom Nairn once suggested that making a new nation always entails making a new class. This observation by one of Scotland's most influential intellectuals from the long era of campaigning for a Scottish parliament is used here as the starting point for investigating how the social basis of views about Scotland's governing system has evolved since the 1990s. The consolidation of support for the system that was established in 1999, and the growth of support for independence since then, may be understood, in part, as a consequence of the growth of a new social class, composed predominantly of graduates from the massively expanded system of higher education who are employed in the burgeoning service sector of the economy. The support for independence has been especially marked among those graduates who work in that part of the service sector that consists of public services such as education, health and government itself.