This article was first published in August 2023 on Iain Lawson’s blog Yoursforscotland.com.

I’ve been prompted to write these few words having read a twitter exchange a few days ago where some of those engaged seemed to profess difficulty in understanding how the popular will of the people of Scotland can be measured.

As a general principle it is recognised that in a democracy the role of politicians is to represent the will of the people. The type of democracy in use determines how that role is fulfilled, how effective it is and whether or not popular will can be claimed to have been established and satisfied.

Before looking at where we are in Scotland on this we need to be clear we understand the term ‘popular will’. In the words of one Public Management Specialist it is the slipperiest concept in the policy lexicon. However, to politicians it is effectively the only means used to establish the degree of support the people (the electorate, the real decision makers in a democracy) give for proposed policy solutions and proposed actions.  

So what is the position currently in Scotland? Our politicians & political parties are constrained and controlled by the UK’s version of representative democracy, a very blunt measure used only periodically (every 5 years, occasionally more frequently) to measure popular will. This means for a period of 5 years (slippery) elected politicians can run free to interpret a single expression of popular will as justification for the introduction and enactment of legislation which sometimes has only a tenuous link to the mandate they were elected on. Can we have a better form of democracy in an independent Scotland? You bet we can!

Are our politicians and political parties planning for a new form of Scottish democracy which is not based on or follows the discredited Westminster system of democracy? I see no evidence so far that they are giving serious consideration to a new form of Scottish participative or direct democracy in an independent Scotland. Are we really just going to carry forward the English version of democracy where we have no opportunity to exercise  popular will to direct government between general elections?

To effectively exercise the sovereignty of the people of Scotland we need to ditch the English version of democracy. The people, if they are to be truly sovereign and the holders of ultimate power in Scotland, must have ongoing mechanisms available to them to monitor, control and express their popular will on the actions of government in between elections; not just at the time of a general election when a government is formed, but to assess policy solutions and actions by government when they’re actually delivering their manifesto aims & promises. In other words the people must retain their sovereignty, use it and not hand it over to their politicians.

So, where are we on that in Scotland? Are our politicians and political parties preparing plans for a radical change in democracy come independence? Are they planning to introduce mechanisms to measure popular will more frequently, on an going basis?  Not that I have seen. We need democratic reform to enable Scotland to reflect its own political values and constitutional provisions instead of those of England.

The UK (and therefore Scotland) is described as having constitutional democracy. It is, in name only. We have no encoded written constitution and we have the government of the day able to make constitutional change through the legislative process with no requirement to specifically consult and measure popular will. In most nations of the world the will of the people in terms of their constitutional principles values and culture is represented and measurable with a written encoded constitution and, where any change is proposed the people must be consulted and popular will measured.

With popular sovereignty, a modern written & encoded constitution, and direct democracy it should be possible in an independent Scotland to more widely and effectively measure and control the use of popular will where  –

Are political parties campaigning to inform and enable the people of Scotland to use their inalienable rights as the sovereign power in Scotland, not just when electing the government of their choice?  No. In preparation for independence we need to see plans to determine through a constitutional convention the type of mechanisms the people (not politicians or political parties) will decide to use to exercise their sovereignty on an ongoing basis.  Salvo’s work is focused on working with all pro-independence supporters of whatever party affiliation or none on the restoration of the sovereign rights of the people of Scotland. When it comes to how we move the constitutional authority currently held by Westminster back to the people of Scotland I am clear that the people need to decide the nature and extent of democratic and political reform.

John Brown

Feb 2025