For Scottish nationalists, an independent Scotland and a more democratic Scotland are synonymous. The draft constitution put forth this summer by the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) reflects this view:

Preparing a constitution is not merely a matter of placing words in a document—important though the words are—but of the Constitutional Convention process being Scotland's best opportunity to express our values, reflect our journey to this place, articulate our aspirations for future generations, engage our citizens, renew our institutions and methods of governance, and reinvigorate our democracy and civil society.

The draft constitution starts simply: "In Scotland, the people are sovereign." This may seem obvious to American observers, but it's revolutionary in the British political system. In Britain today, the people are not sovereign. All powers of state are instead vested in the British crown, currently worn by Queen Elizabeth II, and carried out by her ministers and by Parliament on her behalf.

By political convention, this is a legal fiction: Elizabeth plays no day-to-day role in governing Britain, and the House of Commons is freely elected by the British people. Were she to defy the prime minister and rule as the kings and queens of old, Parliament would simply abolish the monarchy. None of this is written down anywhere, but it is universally understood. The medley of medieval institutions, modern laws and political customs, and unspoken rules is known as Britain's "unwritten constitution."

An unwritten constitution isn't necessarily undemocratic. Even American politics, which revolves around the U.S. Constitution, operates by metatextual rules. Presumption of innocence isn't mentioned once in the U.S. Bill of Rights, for example, but the Supreme Court has held it to be "the undoubted law, axiomatic and elementary" in all criminal trials.

But America's constitutional system is still grounded in textual earth. The U.K. "constitution" is a series of reforms stacked upon reforms, like layers of sediment. These written laws and unwritten customs have, more often than not, transferred power from the Crown to Parliament—and only rarely from either institution to the people. The House of Lords may have lost its teeth, for example, but it is still unelected and astonishingly archaic. "Only in the UK and Iran do religious prelates automatically take a seat in the legislature," one observer noted, referring to Church of England bishops.

The U.S. constitution is heavily influenced by British democracy, but also by its perceived shortcomings. So is Scotland's draft document. Instead of welding the elected House of Commons to a House of Lords, Scotland's legislature would be unicameral and elected by proportional representation. Elizabeth II would reign as the first Queen of Scots in more than three centuries, but Scots would have a monarch as an expression of their sovereignty, not the other way around.