A viable and acceptable Constitution must ‘fit’ the country for which it is intended. This means it must be ‘rooted in a country's historical experience’, ‘reflect values commonly held or respected by the people’ and ‘address current problems confronting the state’. In other words, in addition to conforming to universal standards of contemporary liberal democratic constitutionalism (discussed in the final section of the previous chapter), it must also reflect ‘parochial’ needs that derive from the specific constitutional requirements of the country for which it is intended.

These particular needs can be embodied in the substantive provisions of a Constitution which recognise specific laws, policies or interests. For example, the Constitution of Sweden protects Sami reindeer herding rights, while that of Nauru, in the South Pacific, has special provisions governing the distribution of royalties from the phosphate industry. Parochial needs can also be considered more broadly in relation to the institutional form of the state. For example, the fact that the Constitution of Sweden provides for a large legislature elected by a party list system, while that of Nauru provides for a small legislature elected by a personal, plurality-based system, reflects the different needs of a medium sized industrialised European country, on the one hand, and a tiny Pacific micro-nation on the other.

This chapter, following an approach inspired by Walter Murphy, considers how Scotland's ‘commonly held or respected’ values, as well as ‘current problems confronting the state’, such as sectarianism and different understandings of national identity, might shape the criteria of a viable and acceptable constitutional order. Recognising that ‘Constitutions are rarely written in a vacuum, insulated from the political conflicts that swirl about them’, it is also necessary to survey the ethnic, religious, demographic and ideological cleavages of Scotland, and discusses how these cleavages might shape the boundaries of a viable and acceptable Constitution. Cleavages are here defined as ‘a division in society along which conflict may arise […] creating differences in interests, ideologies and identities that may translate into differing policy preferences’.

The first section concerns national identity. Many in Scotland have ‘nested’ identities, considering themselves to be both Scottish and British. For this reason, a strong Scottish identity has not necessarily translated into rejection of the Union.