Eve Hepburn

• PhD
• Managing Director at PolicyScribe

This research provides an overview of the potential social impacts of Brexit on individuals and communities in Scotland. It complements economic analyses of Brexit, which tend to focus on impacts on businesses, the economy and GDP. The paper begins by discussing the impacts of the Brexit referendum on people in Scotland since June 2016 to the prese...

Introduction to the Handbook of Territorial Politics

The study of intergovernmental relations (IGR) is a classical research area in scholarship on federalism and territorial politics. However, it has largely ignored the relatively new, and recently decentralized area of immigrant integration. The aim of this Special Issue is twofold. First, it aims to analyse how governments in multi-level states coo...

The Handbook of Territorial Politics is a collection of innovative and original contributions bringing together leading scholars from across the world to demonstrate how territory has had an impact on institutional structures, public policies, elections and political parties, political culture, identity and citizenship. Territorial politics constit...

Are populist radical right (PRR) parties the only alternatives for voters seeking restrictive and assimilationist outcomes? Or is a mainstream choice available? Popular opinion and social media commentaries often criticise mainstream parties for facing in the same liberal and multicultural direction. The literature on parties and elections equally...

Are populist radical right (PRR) parties the only alternatives for voters seeking restrictive and assimilationist outcomes? Or is a mainstream choice available? Popular opinion and social media commentaries often criticize mainstream parties for facing in the same liberal and multicultural direction. Literature on parties and elections equally sugg...

Had Scotland voted for independence in September 2014, it would have gained all the paraphernalia of statehood, including full rights over citizenship. But despite the “no”, can we still detect a Scottish citizenship without the machinery of statehood? This article examines Scotland's ability to influence citizenship and migration policy from two p...

This article explores how the issue of immigration was debated by Scottish and UK political actors during the Scottish independence referendum. It considers the longer-term positions of Scottish elites on immigration, before focussing on the ways in which the Yes camp's liberal, multiculturalist approach contrasted sharply with the more restrictive...

With all eyes focussed on Scotland and Catalonia during the independence referendum campaigns of 2014, one could be forgiven for overlooking the burgeoning nationalist agitation in another of Europe’s multinational states: Italy. Unwillingly soldered together at the end of nineteenth century, there are now multiple fractures that threaten to break...

Linda Colley (1996) identified three key ‘glues’ for the British Union state created in 1707: extensive wars with France; a uniting sense of Protestantism; and a burgeoning commercial and military empire. This article explores how two key parts of this project – namely, ‘unionism’ and a collective sense of ‘Britishness’ – has become increasingly di...

In multilevel states, control over migrant integration generally rests with the sub-state regional level. This begs the question of whether regions – especially those with claims to autonomy – ‘do’ integration differently from so-called ‘national models’. This paper focuses on the under-studied role of politics in immigrant integration, asking: wha...

As one of the most stable unitary states in the world, Finland has largely been overlooked in the literature on multi-level political systems. However, this categorisation of Finland neglects the substantial autonomy that has been fought for, and accorded to, the Swedish-speaking Åland Islands over the twentieth century. Åland is the only province...

British Politics Review is a quarterly journal issued by the British Politics Society, Norway. With contributions from academic and journalistic sour-ces, the British Politics Review is aimed at everyone with a general interest in political developments in Britain. British Politics Society, Norway is politically neutral and has no col-lective agend...

While immigration policy has recently emerged onto the Scottish political agenda, despite being an issue reserved to Westminster, its sister policy – the integration of immigrants after they arrive – has received little attention north of the border, despite being an issue devolved to Scotland. This article explores why the ‘hidden’ nature of integ...

A growing body of literature has revealed that islands enjoy some of the most creative and sophisticated forms of governance arrangements in the world (Baldacchino & Milne 2000; Roy le 2001; Suksi 2011; Baldacchino & Hepburn 2012). This is especially true in the case of multinational states, where substate islands have been granted unique forms of...

Scotland has been vaunted for following a distinctive — and arguably progressive — path on policy issues within the United Kingdom (Bradbury and Mitchell, 2001; Keating, 2010). However, while key devolved policy issues such as education, healthcare, and environmental policy have received considerable attention (Paterson, 1997; Greer, 2005; McEwen,...

Immigration has become one of the most contested issues in advanced democracies. Blamed for threatening national cultures and disrupting social cohesion, immigration has also been identified as the only way to mitigate the pending demographic crises of Western states. Yet despite these demographic arguments, there are few issues that have aroused t...

Immigration is one of the most pressing concerns in Western democracies, becoming a key source of polarization amongst political parties and public opinion (Boswell, 2003; Odmalm, 2012). However, while the integration of immigrants is increasingly managed at the sub-state regional level, as demonstrated by Ricard Zapata-Barrero and Fiona Barker in...

This book explores the politics of immigration in multilevel states from two viewpoints: governance and political parties. Six multilevel countries have been examined in depth: Belgium (Flanders and Wallonia), Spain (Catalonia), Canada (Quebec), the United Kingdom (Scotland), Italy (Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto and Calabria), Germany (Bavaria),...

Local autonomy in a subnational jurisdiction is more likely to be gained, secured or enhanced where there are palpable movements or political parties agitating for independence in these smaller territories. A closer look at the fortunes, operations and dynamics of independence parties from subnational island jurisdictions can offer some interesting...

This paper explores the policy transfer and learning process within the UK since 1999, examining the conditions in which transfer takes place among central and devolved governments. We distinguish among concurrent policies, policy competition, coercive transfer and policy learning. Policy transfer can be more or less coercive and constrained, while...

Analysis of political regionalism and regionalist parties has traditionally neglected the case of Germany. We argue that this is a curious ommission. This article looks to redress this balance by applying frameworks created for understanding the determinants of regionalist party success to the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) and the eastern G...

Islands have developed some of the most innovative autonomy arrangements in the world. Small island peoples have often rejected outright independence in favour of developing unique forms of constitutional status within larger state or supranational bodies (Watts 2000; Baldacchino 2004b). Islands such as Åland, Aruba, the Isle of Man, Puerto Rico an...

This article explores how stateless nationalist parties in the ‘Celtic periphery’ of Scotland and Northern Ireland have used Europe to advance their territorial projects. Despite vastly different historical, political and social contexts, the Scottish National Party and Northern Ireland's Social Democratic and Labour Party have both advanced a pro-...

Many scholars have identified stateless nationalist and regionalist parties (SNRPs) as ardent supporters of Europe. This support has been explained as a result of positive developments in supranational integration that convinced these actors that Europe could facilitate the achievement of their territorial demands. Other work, however, leads to an...

Citizenship is usually regarded as the exclusive domain of the state. However, changes to the structure of states resulting from decentralisation and globalisation have required a re-conceptualisation of citizenship, as authority is dispersed, identities multiply and political entitlements vary across territorial levels. Decentralisation has endowe...

Quebec, Bavaria and Scotland are three regions nested within multi-level states. Each has a pronounced territorial identity and a strong stateless nationalist and regionalist party (SNRP), factors that have contributed to an important territorial cleavage in political life. This contribution explores the dynamics of these regional party systems in...

This book explores how regional political parties use Europe to advance their territorial projects in times of rapid state restructuring. It examines the ways in which decentralisation and supranational integration have encouraged regional parties to pursue their strategies across multiple territorial levels. The book constitutes the first attempt...

This chapter introduces the main themes of the book, which are all related to looking at regional party strategies in Europe. The main focus of this book is on the variety of ways in which regional parties have responded to and used European integration in their pursuit of territorial interests. There are a number of issues that are considered in t...

This chapter explores in depth the types of territorial strategies available to regional parties in Europe. It conceptualises territorial strategies on two separate but interrelated dimensions: ‘autonomy’ strategies, which lie on a continuum ranging from unitarism to independence; and ‘capacity’ strategies that are pursued to obtain political, soci...

This chapter begins with an overview of the main political traditions in Scotland, examining how party autonomy goals have been shaped by different ideological discourses. Then, it examines how parties conceptualise the ‘nation’ and Scotland's position within Britain and Europe. Next, it introduces the European dimension, with consideration of part...

This chapter explores why European integration was linked to hopes for economic modernisation in Sardinia, but failed to have any resonance as a political opportunity structure for pursuing self-determination. Demands for self-determination were only loosely linked to processes of integration and regionalisation in Europe. Instead, the primary conc...

This chapter shows that, whilst all parties are unquestionably pro-European, this masks a growth of scepticism about what Europe can do for Bavarians, and where its limits should be drawn. Demands for a ‘Europe of the Regions’ were motivated by the fear that European integration was encroaching on Länder competences. In response, the Christian Soci...

This chapter reviews the cyclical nature of territorial strategies in the three cases. It explains variation in responses to Europe, exploring why some parties perceived Europe as a means of advancing autonomy, whilst others viewed it as a threat. It also summarises the different interpretations of building ‘capacity’ in Europe—which has meant infl...

This chapter explores the Scottish National Party (SNP)'s early demands for self-government. It assesses the idea of ‘independence in Europe’. It also addresses how the existence of a devolved Scottish Parliament has altered the context for pursuing independence. It then considers how the meaning of independence has been irrevocably changed in a po...

Most analyses of nationalist and regionalist parties focus on cases of ‘success’—with the usual suspects of the Scottish National Party, Parti Québécois and Convergència i Unió dominating the field. Yet, by exploring the performance of only a select group of most-similar cases, it is difficult to distinguish what the conditions for success—and fail...

Throughout Europe, stateless nationalist and regionalist parties (SNRPs) have moved from ‘niche’ actors in party systems to mainstream political players. No longer the ‘outsider’ in party politics, these parties have successfully entered government at the regional and state levels and many have been responsible for pushing the agenda for radical co...

This article explores the various ways in which regionalist parties approach the issue of immigration. Drawing on several cases, it compares how regionalist parties 'construct' the territory and how issues of diversity and immigration inform their policy goals. It is shown that mobilisation on immigration varies across regions. Whilst parties in Sc...

This article explores the diverse ways in which parties operating in regional contexts have responded to, interpreted, and used the imagery of a ‘Europe of the Regions’ to advance their territorial demands. It is demonstrated that parties have not had consistent positions on Europe, rather, they have exhibited a cyclical quality, moving back and fo...

This article examines the continuing salience of the territorial cleavage in Bavarian party politics. It does so through an exploration of the Christian Social Union's (CSU) mobilisation of Bavarian identity as part of its political project, which has forced other parties in Bavaria to strengthen their territorial goals and identities. Parties have...

Devolution in the UK forms part of a wider process of spatial rescaling across Europe. Little work has been done on its effect on interest articulation. The literature on policy communities treats them as sectoral in scope. We propose the concept of ‘territorial policy communities’ to designate territorially bounded constellations of actors within...