PECULIARITIES OF FORMING SCOTTISH NATIONAL SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE CONDITIONS OF DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH STATE: SOCIO-POLITICAL ASPECTS

Abstract

n the article the author examines the features of the formation of Scottish national identity in the context of analyzing the problem of the regionalization of British statehood. Great attention is paid to the historical determinants of the formation of the conceptual foundations of the United Kingdom and the British national-state identity. This allowed the author to identify the key elements of the functioning of the Union, which in political practice were backed by unionist ideology that differed from the concepts of the continental partners about the adoption of multi-national nature of the state structure and supported the idea of Scottish exclusiveness that was channeled into the mainstream of the interests of centralized British state. Separately, the article touches upon the problem of British patriotism in its imperial and national manifestations. Considering the socio-political (including party) aspects of Scottish national identity within the framework of British identity, the author concludes that the idea of social solidarity, developed in the context of the evolution of the Union, became closely associated with the national identity of the Scots. As the main subject of the discourse, the author raises the question of why the Scottish national identity was preserved (at times even flourished) in the conditions of British statehood, and concludes: while in other states they were trying to form a unified identity, a differentiated approach was observed in Great Britain.