The politics of poverty in Scotland

This chapter is in two parts.The first part offers an assessment of the Scottish debate on poverty over the last fifteen years, and attempts to relate some of the key features of the debate to political developments of the period.The second part offers an overview of the Scottish response to the Government's proposals for the reform of the social security system which culminated in the Social Security Act of July 1986.Four broad conclusions are suggested by the material surveyed.First, and most obviously, the poverty debate in Scotland has been more tightly confined by practical considerations of policy and politics than the debate south of the Border.Second, and partly as a consequence, the mainstream tradition of poverty analysis in Scotland has been largely derivative with no significant contribution to the theoretical debates initiated by Professor Peter Townsend and others.Third, an important stimulus to the development of the debate in Scotland has been an arms-length dialogue between Nationalists and unionists in the shape of Labour Party members and supporters which neither set of protagonists has been keen to acknowledge.Fourth, over the fifteen year period there has been a distinct though limited strengthening of the Scottish dimension of the debate.