Representing the nation in Citizenship in an Independent Scotland: Compromised inclusion?

This paper analyses how Citizenship in an Independent Scotland (CIS) – published by the Scottish Government as part of a ‘prospectus for an independent Scotland’ – discursively represents the Scottish nation in the context of establishing who should be eligible to be a member of that nation. I relate CIS to the historical and contemporary determination of British citizenship, and to evidence concerning popular conceptions of citizenship and national belonging in Scotland. I argue that while CIS reflects nation-building through an attempt to rhetorically differentiate Scotland from Britain, it also reflects the influence which the evolution of British citizenship has on proposed post-independence Scottish citizenship. I also evaluate CIS’s stress on ‘inclusion’, consistent with its representation of Scotland as an ‘inclusive’ nation. I conclude that the proposals may be described as compromised inclusion, and that the reasons for this are likely to be common to similar aspirational secessionist proposals in sub-state nations.