People do not perceive devolution gains for their local communities, particularly if located in rural and peripheral areas.
Edinburgh has outpaced Glasgow in terms of economic and demographic growth,suggesting a shift towards greater ‘monocentricity’ in Scotland. As a result, a growing sense of marginalisation may be emerging not only in rural areas, but also in urban parts of the Central Belt, including Glasgow.
The analysis demonstrates that diverging perceptions of devolution’s benefits have important political and constitutional implications. In Scotland, it is shown that, even more than generally positive views on how devolved powers have affected the nation as a whole, perceiving a positive local impact of devolution is associated with increased support for the ruling SNP, as well as greater support for more devolution and even independence, after controlling for a range of socio-economic, political and meta-political variables.
In both Scotland and Wales, the political position of the incumbent and the broader devolution cause are particularly undermined by perceptions that devolution has only benefited the capital cities, Edinburgh and Cardiff, or has not brought benefits at all.