The Referendum on Scottish Independence: A Democratic Audit

This project will provide a detailed analysis of the Scottish Government's proposal for independence and a democratic audit of the referendum process designed to offer this option to the Scottish people. The two dimensions are inextricably linked. Constitutional outcomes are shaped by the process that produces them and at the same time the legitimacy of any constitutional initiative is heavily dependent upon the fairness of the process that brings it about.

There are significant gaps in the information available to policy makers and citizens at this crucial constitutional moment for Scotland. The project will provide policy-makers, civil society and citizens with clear and accessible explanations of what independence would mean for the ways in which they are governed. At the same time it will make recommendations for how best to engage citizens in the referendum process.

First, the project will ask: what does 'independence' mean, particularly in the context of a three hundred year union that has left the United Kingdom deeply integrated and in the context of an ever more expansive European Union? The Investigator will offer a Table of Powers and a fully searchable Dataverse of how the powers of the Scottish Parliament would change, in a format accessible to policy makers and non-specialists in civil society.

Secondly, the Investigator will assess the planned referendum process. From a recent major study (Tierney 2012) he will use the following principles to assess the fairness of the Scottish referendum: active citizen participation, inclusive of different voices and opinions; the provision of objective and non-partisan information to citizens and proper legal regulation of the referendum campaign; and the maximisation of satisfaction with the process by both winners and losers. The project will therefore contribute to the ESRC's strategic priority: 'A vibrant and fair society', by offering prescriptions as to how individuals and civil society in Scotland can most effectively make their voices heard in the current constitutional debate.

The project will offer various outputs. It will lead to two high level academic articles in leading journals. It is, however, targeted primarily at policy-makers, civil society and citizens. The main outputs will be the Table of Powers and Dataverse; three one-day Workshops which will result in Reports aimed at policy makers and civil society; summarised Evidence Briefings targeted at interested citizens; and on-line Quizzes for interested citizens including school pupils to test their knowledge of the independence issue.

The Workshops will be phased to inform various stages of the policy-making process and will be podcasted on the project Website: the first will be held to coincide with the Referendum Bill's introduction into the Scottish Parliament and will offer guidelines on how to design a deliberative referendum. The second will bring together experts on the constitution to consider the implications of independence for the United Kingdom and for Scotland's international status, again well in advance of the referendum; the third will seek to offer guidelines as to how the referendum process leading up to 2014 might be improved as the Scottish Government's Elections Team work on the details of the process and the Electoral Commission begins to assess these. The Website and a Blog will be established to disseminate results, host the Table of Powers, Dataverse and Quizzes.

As Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law and a founding co-ordinator of the Scottish Constitutional Futures Forum, the Investigator can offer high profile and well-resourced dissemination networks through which to deliver these outputs and, in particular, with which to engage extensively across Scottish and wider British policy-making and civil society sectors.

As Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law (ECCL) - the only Centre in Scotland devoted to the study and practice of constitutional law - and a founding co-ordinator of the Scottish Constitutional Futures Forum (SCFF), the Investigator can offer high profile and well-resourced dissemination networks through which to deliver the project's outputs.

Two workshops recently co-ordinated by the Investigator through the ECCL addressing Scotland's constitutional future (Mullen and Tierney) will be a model for the project's Workshops leading to reports and evidence briefings. These will bring together academics, policy-makers, including civil servants and government lawyers from a wide range of UK, devolved and EU institutions, as well as Scottish civil society and the Electoral Commission in Scotland in a process of knowledge exchange.

The SCFF is a new research group co-organised by the Investigator and senior colleagues from his own and other Scottish law schools. This is designed to contribute to the constitutional debate with detailed events and publications on a targeted set of substantive and process-based constitutional issues. Both the ECCL and SCFF will add value to public engagement and dissemination through their own websites and frequent events. For example, the SCFF promises at least five events between now and the end of the project, further illuminating the substantive and procedural issues at stake in Scotland's constitutional future.

Another complementary project will take place in April 2013 when the ECCL will host a two day conference: 'Constitutional Referendums and the Democratic Challenge: Quebec and Scotland in Focus'. This conference will reflect upon the Quebec/Canada experience of referendums and the lessons this might hold for the Scottish process. The ECCL will meet half the costs of this event, and its Canadian partner, the University of Quebec at Montreal, the other half.

The project will also make impact through a Website to be hosted through Edinburgh Law School. The School website is already among the best in the UK and major state of the art re-launch will be active by December 2012, supported by a School IT Manager, web developer and 2 computing officers. Using Responsive Design the Website will enhance the PI's editorial functions and maximise the quality of external access to the project. This will host a Table of Powers with a fully searchable Dataverse allowing civil society and interested citizens to see at a glance the powers of the Scottish Parliament, and what independence would mean. This will also support a Blog with topical information posted, and on-line monthly Quizzes. These will allow citizens to test their knowledge and may be useful for schools to teach younger voters about the various proposals for change, an important issue if the franchise is extended to 16 and 17 year olds as is currently being proposed. A Listserv will allow for frequent distribution of information to interested individuals and organisations.

The Investigator is also a regular contributor to the UK constitutional law blog which is a high profile blog with many users. He will also use this to advertise the project and to disseminate its results.

Finally, the Investigator's work will extend beyond the life of the project. He will continue to track how the substantive issue plays out in the period leading to the referendum and beyond, and will also audit the process up to the referendum itself and again in any post-referendum negotiation or consultation processes - all to be audited on the project Website. The project will therefore be well placed to offer recommendations concerning good deliberative practice in inter-governmental negotiations on the implementation of any referendum result, the respective roles of the UK and Scottish Parliaments in such a process, and the ongoing engagement of citizens and civil society in deliberating on Scotland's constitutional future.