"This Is a Democratic Question:" Scottish Independence in the Age of Austerity

This paper situates Scotland’s 2014 independence referendum campaign in the context of the proliferation of grassroots political activity responding to the economic crisis, austerity, and the limits of liberal democracy in Europe. In doing so, it contributes to a growing scholarly discussion on emancipatory strategies taken up by a variety of populations whose experience of the crisis includes new or exacerbated forms of social dislocation and political disenfranchisement (Huke, Clua-Losada, and Bailey 2015). Drawing on field research conducted during the height of the campaign in 2014, I ask: how did Yes Scotland supporters construct the referendum as a democratic rather than a national question? What was at stake in claiming this difference?  By examining the discursive strategies Yes supporters used to frame the independence project, I show how participants in the Yes campaign interpreted the referendum as an opportunity to break with the deepening “Age of Austerity” in Britain and among countries embroiled in the economic crisis. At stake for Yes supporters was the perceived risk of conflation with the ascendance of right wing nationalism as signified by the anti-immigration, Eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP). Finally, I conclude by suggesting that the success of this framing created opportunities for continuing mobilization against the crisis and austerity despite the “no” outcome of the referendum.