Recasting the state: The Scottish National Party and the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie

In 2014, voters in Scotland and Flanders were faced with a choice which would shape the constitutional future of their respective nations as well as that of the British and Belgian states. The Scottish National Party and the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie sought different types of self-government, but their proposals were made in response to the embedding state. This article analyses the messaging of each party, determining that both discursively use the state–as concept and as institution–in similar ways. Both acknowledge the inter-dependence inherent to governance in the twenty-first century, but a... Mehr ...