The Unit for the Study of Government in Scotland, now subsumed by the Institute of Governance, was acknowledged as the leading centre in the country for studies of Scottish society and politics. At the centre of the Unit's work was the study of policy-making and the political process in Scotland, set in a broad comparative and international context. Constitutional change in Scotland had been one of the Unit's central themes since its founding in the mid-1970s for which it drew on diverse disciplines, notably in Law and Social Sciences. It conducted The Scottish Election Study, which provided an in-depth account of how and why Scotland voted at the 1997 General Election, especially in the context of long-term changes in electoral attitudes and behaviour. A similar study had focused on the Scottish Referendum in September 1997.
The Unit was followed by the Governance of Scotland Forum in 1998, and then by the Institute of Governance in 2002
A number of publications had emanated from the Unit throughout the 1980s and 1990s on a variety of issues, including pieces on the re-organisation of Scottish local government, management of councils, financing Scottish home rule, gender and Scottish society, labour market policy in Britain, citizenship, Scottish churches and the political process, women in Scottish politics, data protection and privacy, and democratic participation in the Scottish Parliament.
From the guide to the Collection on the Study of Government in Scotland, 1930-1980, (Edinburgh University Library)
