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Conclusion
41. Devolution has clearly had some considerable success in meeting its advocates' aspirations that it should strengthen the bond between the government and the governed. More people trust the Scottish Executive to look after Scotland's interests than trust the UK government to do so. More people think the Scottish Executive is good at listening to people's views before taking decisions than think the same about the UK government. Far more people think that the creation of a Scottish Parliament has given ordinary people more say than feel it has reduced their influence. Moreover these statements are true of all sections of Scottish society. Only when it comes to the perceived importance of voting in elections have we found that devolution does not seem to have had some kind of positive impact overall.
42. But there are limitations to what has been achieved. The proportion that trusts the Scottish Executive to look after Scotland's interests is lower now than it was in the immediate aftermath of the first Scottish Parliament election in 1999. Only around one in three think that the Scottish Executive listens to people's views, while the proportion who believe that devolution has increased ordinary people's say in how they are governed is much the same. Most people think the advent of devolution has not made much difference one way or the other to how much say people have in how they are governed. Meanwhile we have found only one or two pieces of evidence that suggest that devolution has been particularly successful in securing the engagement of those who are usually 'excluded from the democratic process'. More commonly, it is those who were already more likely to be politically engaged who take a particularly positive view of the devolved institutions and of the impact of devolution. But perhaps the claim that devolution would particularly succeed in reaching out to those parts of the public that other political institutions have failed to reach was always a rather unrealistic one (Mitchell, 2000).
43. Further progress towards meeting the aspirations for devolution would appear in part to depend on persuading Scots that devolution is working. The repeated appearance of perceptions of the Scottish Parliament building in our analyses points strongly to the damage that is capable of being caused to the reputation of the devolved institutions by perceived failure and incompetence - whether justified or not. Meanwhile it appears to be difficult to persuade people that devolution has brought them more influence if they think, as many still do, that the devolved institutions have less influence than Westminster. At the same time, when it comes to the perceived importance of voting in Scottish Parliament elections at least, it seems there is the possibility of securing a greater sense of engagement by persuading people of the symbolic importance of the devolved institutions in the nation's life. Whether the devolved institutions can realise their full potential to strengthen the bonds between government and governed depends then on the ability of Scotland's politicians to persuade the Scottish public that devolution is working - both substantively and symbolically.
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