Autonomy of Modern Scotland

"Paterson’s text, while inspired by overlapping academic perspectives ... is held in check by an underlying respect for democracy. Compared to many Scottish intellectuals, there is ... a scepticism here about the progressive pretences of transnationalism and Europeanism.

Paterson’s insights, nowadays, may feel discomfiting, out of place and a little unfashionable. But that reinforces the need to grapple with them. The appearance of apocalyptic constitutional battles, which has dominated Scottish politics since 2014, has only served to reproduce an Edinburgh governing class shielded from accountability or democratic pressure. Sturgeonism, as a political regime, may prove in retrospect to have formed merely the latest iteration of “unionist nationalism”. If that is a hypothesis worthy of consideration, then AMS is due a reappraisal."  James Foley