Michael Keating is professor of regional studies at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and professor of politics at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. His thirty books as author and editor include Nations against the State: The New Politics of Nationalism in Quebec, Catalonia and Scotland (Macmillan, 1996); Plurinational Democracy: Stateless Nations in a Post-Sovereignty Era (Oxford University Press, 2001); The Government of Scotland: Public Policy Making after Devolution (Edinburgh University Press, 2005); and The Independence of Scotland: Self-government and the shifting politics of union (Oxford University Press, 2009)