A crisis of legitimacy looms over the British political landscape. Confidence in our governing institutions is under severe stress. Living standards have eroded rapidly following the Great Recession as the cost of living increased. The sense continues to grow that no matter what we do or who we vote for, these trends will continue, and life will worsen.

These trends strike at the two pillars upholding public confidence in our governing institutions and in democracy itself: input legitimacy, the extent to which we feel that we are empowered to shape the policies of government, and output legitimacy, the quality of the results government gets. Both are necessary foundations of the legitimacy of our governing institutions. Both are under threat, and tackling that threat will be the next government’s greatest challenge.

Research released by King’s College London last year showed that the proportion of Britons who have confidence in the Westminster Parliament had fallen from 46% in 1990 to just 23%. Just 24% of Britons had confidence in the government, meaning the UK ranked in the bottom third among countries they surveyed.

If Scotland were ranked independently, we would have come ahead of only Mexico, embroiled in civil conflict, and Greece after a decade of enforced austerity, IMF bailouts and attendant political crises.

Forget social media chatter about support – or lack thereof – for abolishing Holyrood in light of The Sunday Times’ most recent polling by Nortstat. Britons entirely lack faith in our governing institutions, and Scottish attitudes represent merely the sharp edge of that........

© Herald Scotland