How To Start a New Country & A Short Guide To Starting a New Country

Primary Author or Creator
Common Weal
Type of Resource
Policy Paper
Alternative Published Date
August 2021
Fast Facts

Both books are essential reading for both believers in Scottish independence and undecided voters who seek answers to their practical questions about the processes required for starting an independent country.

More details

Common Weal is proud to present the end result of 18 months of work on the White Paper Project: a blueprint for how to start an independent Scotland, together with a short guide to starting a new nation, arming the independence movement with the most important piece of work completed since the 2014 referendum.

Both books are essential reading for both believers in Scottish independence and undecided voters who seek answers to their practical questions about the processes required for starting an independent country.

The purpose of this work is to explore the practical steps that Scotland would have to take if it wanted to become an independent country. The book’s starting point is the day after the referendum at which a majority of Scotland have voted for independence and it ends three years later with Independence Day.

Based predominantly on Common Weal’s 18 month long White Paper Project, the book explores how Scotland would build its new systems and infrastructure, how it would pay for it all and how much it would cost.

An independent Scotland should aim to establish itself as a 21st century nation. It is an excellent opportunity to design the country not as an adaptation of the 19th century nation but as one which is rooted in modernity.