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Study of the Scottish National Party

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The ESRC has funded a major study of the Scottish National Party (RES-062-23-0722, £175,691), including an extensive survey of the entire membership and a series of interviews with party elites. This research is being undertaken by Professor James Mitchell and Dr Robert Johns (University of Strathclyde) and Dr Lynn Bennie (University of Aberdeen).

Background and objectives

In 2007 the SNP won a historic election victory, and now forms Scotland's (minority) government. Yet relatively little is known about the party, and in particular about its members and the role they play within the party organisation.

The SNP has traditionally been seen as an example of a party that emerged from a social movement, relying on members for financial support, campaigning activities, and contributions to internal decision-making. However, such accounts of the SNP have not drawn on empirical evidence about the role of members. Nor have they considered the changed context of devolution and recent major organisational change. The party now has many more elected representatives and related staff, and following the introduction of a national membership register has also seen a large increase in its membership.

This research project therefore has five major objectives:

To understand the social and demographic make-up of the SNP;
To examine the motivations underpinning membership;
To examine political attitudes;
To assess the structure of the party;
To explore the ideological and policy inputs of members.

The combination of a membership survey and structured interviews with key figures allow us to address all of these objectives. The survey data have now been collected, and some of the headline findings are listed on the right-hand side of this page.

Project materials for downloading

This section provides links to various materials and outputs from the project: questionnaires, data (available soon), working papers and presentations.

Membership survey questionnaire
'Who are the SNP members?': paper by the team presented at the EPOP Conference, Manchester, 12-14 September 2008
'Who are the SNP members?' - slides: presentation to accompany EPOP paper
Interview with Professor James Mitchell on BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour, 12 October 2008
Donaldson Lecture: given by Professor James Mitchell at the SNP's Annual Conference, Perth, 18 October 2008

If you have any queries or comments regarding this research, please contact Professor James Mitchell on j.mitchell@strath.ac.uk.

A male party?

Although the party has some prominent female front-benchers, its membership is very male: only 32% of our respondents were women.

Nation above class

Only 42% of SNP members think of themselves as belonging to a social class. (In a previous survey of Labour members, the corresponding figure was 72%.)

Glasgow and the SNP

16% of SNP members live in Glasgow, but only 9% of its total vote in 2007 came from that Scottish Parliament region.

All about independence?

12% of SNP members would prefer further devolution rather than independence. Of the rest, one in four would like to see an independent Scotland leave the European Union.

An active party

Only 36% of SNP members reported that they 'never' attend local meetings, compared to 62% of Conservatives and 53% of Liberal Democrats in recent surveys.