Scottish democracy

Last weekend I heard Gerry Hassan speaking about his new book "'The Strange Death of Labour Scotland' 

I found his analysis of the political situation intreaguing. He said that up until devolution there had never been democracy in Scotland. Up until then Scotland had been goverened by fuedal patronage - in the ninteenth century by the Liberals, in the first half of the twentieth century by the Conservatives and in the second half of the twentieth century by Labour. His analysis of Labour was interesting. They had always been a small party and had goverened with an illusion of strength through a power base in the trade unions, and council housing. These have both declined - and with them has the labour parties power of patronage. We are now in the untested waters of PR making many different alliances possible and at the same time the institutions and powers are seeking to cosy up to the SNP to see if they are playing the patronage game. 
It is a convincing arguement based on what I remember from the presentation but I will have to study the book in more detail.