ABSTRACT
Chapter 7 examines intra-party participation, or patterns of activism, in the SNP and Scottish Greens. A key question is whether the surge members were more participatory than traditional members or active in different ways, perhaps carrying forward the unusual movement repertoires of the referendum campaign. The chapter provides evidence that the surgers were less inclined to be active in traditional, collective ways than the established members and more comfortable with an ‘individualised’ form of involvement such as digital participation. The members (existing and new) to a large degree replicated their referendum activities within the parties. This meant the parties gained from an increase in the numbers of activists, but the activists represented a smaller proportion of the memberships. We find little to suggest that the parties’ activists are motivated by radical and uncompromising views which are unrepresentative of the wider memberships or challenging to the party leaderships.
