Arguing for Independence: Evidence, Risks and the Wicked Issues: Evidence, Risk and the Wicked Issues - Softcover

Stephen Maxwell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1908373334 ISBN 13: 9781908373335

Publisher: Luath Press Ltd., 2012

Synopsis

Independence: a nation's right to effective government by its people for its people
Evidence: interpretation of facts
Risk: likelihood that outcomes will not be as predicted
Wicked issues: problems perceived to be resistant to resolution

What sorts of arguments and evidence should carry the most weight in assessing the case for – and against – Scottish independence? Given the complexity of the question and the range of the possible consequences, can either side in the argument pretend to certainty, or must we simply be satisfied with probability or even plausibility? Are there criteria for sifting the competing claims and counter-claims and arriving at a rational decision on Scotland's future?

In Arguing for Independence author Stephen Maxwell opens with a chapter on Ways of Arguing before exploring the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments for independence under six main headings:
the democratic case
the economic case
the social case
the international case
the cultural case
the environmental case
He also provides his own concise answers to some of the most frequent 'Aye but' responses to the case for independence.

By offering an assessment of the case for independence across all its dimensions, Arguing for Independence fills a long-standing gap in Scotland's political bookshelf as we enter a new and critical phase in the debate on Scotland's political future.

About this title

About the Author

STEPHEN MAXWELL was born in Edinburgh in 1942 to a Scottish medical family. He grew up in Yorkshire and was educated there before winning a scholarship to St John's College Cambridge, where he read Moral Sciences. This was followed by three years at the London School of Economics studying International Politics. Attracted by stirrings of Scottish Nationalism, he joined the London branch of the SNP in 1967. He worked as a research associate for the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and a Lecturer in International Affairs at the University of Sussex. In 1970 he returned to Scotland as Chatham House Research Felow at the University of Edinburgh. He was a frequent contributor to the cultural and political journals from Scottish International Review through Question to Radical Scotland, which fertilised the Scottish debate from the 1970s tot he 1990s. From 1973 to 1978 he was the SNP's National Press Officer and was director of the SNP's 1979 campaign in the Scottish Assembly Referendum. He was an SNP councillor on Lothian Regional Council 1975–78 before serving as SNP Vice Chair, successively for Publicity, Policy and Local Government. From the mid-1980s, he worked in the voluntary sector, initially with Scottish Education and Action for Development (SEAD) and then for the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO). He retired in 2009. He was the founding cair of a Scottish charitable company which today provides support to enable six hundred vulnerable people to live in the community. He contributed to numerous collections of essays on Scotland's future, most recently The Modern SNP: from Protest to Power (ed Hassan, EUP, 2009), Nation in a State (ed Brown, Ten Book Press, 2007) and A Nation Again (ed Henderson Scott, Luath Press, 2011).

Edition details

• Publisher: Luath Press Ltd.
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1908373334
• ISBN 13: 9781908373335
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192