Political Recruitment in Post-Devolution Scotland

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to ‘set the scene’, introducing the Scottish case and providing the necessary background needed in order to explain and understand change in the political recruitment process post-devolution. Devolution in Scotland brought with it new and unprecedented opportunities for gendered institutional innovation in the candidate selection process. For all of the Scottish political parties, a clean slate of candidacies with no incumbents as well as a new, more proportional electoral system opened up possibilities for far-reaching change and reform in selection and recruitment procedures. Yet, while the Scottish Parliament is generally considered to be a success story in terms of high levels of women’s representation and the promotion of a more gender-balanced politics, recent trends suggest that the reality is more complex, pointing to underlying continuities in the political recruitment process post-devolution as well as general patterns of erosion and decline.