The push for independence in Catalonia

Barrio, Astrid; Field, Bonnie N.

doi:10.1038/s41562-018-0439-8

Cited by 17 publications

(34 citation statements)

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“…The results, however, confirmed the stagnation though the formation of a new Regional interests. It must be recognized that that kind of discourse obtained a good reception (Crameri 2014(Crameri , 2015Minder 2017;Dowling 2018;Cardenal 2020), though there were cautions signalling towards the concomitant influence of top-down mechanisms rooted on a harsh political struggle between secessionist formations to lead the region (Barrio and Field 2018;Elliott 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Privileged Rebels: A Longitudinal Analysis of Distinctive Economic Traits of Catalonian Secessionism

2020

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During the last decade, the Catalonian secessionist challenge induced a chronic crisis within Spain's politics that does not offer hints of a viable arrangement. The rapidly escalating demands for secession ran almost in parallel with the accentuation of the economic recession that followed the disruption of the world financial system in 2008-2010. Such secession claims reached maximums during 2012-2014, attaining support levels of nearly 50% of citizenry in favour of independence. These figures subsequently diminished a bit but remained close to that level until today. Despite the coincident course, previous studies had shown that the impact of economic hardships was not a major factor in explaining the segregation urgencies, connecting them instead to triggers related to internecine political struggles in the region: Harsh litigations that resulted in an abrupt polarization along nationalistic features in wide segments of the population. In this longitudinal analysis based on the responses of 88,538 individuals through a regular series of 45 official surveys, in the period 2006-2019, we show that economic factors did play a role in the secessionist wave. Our findings showed that the main idiomatic segmentation (Catalan vs. Spanish, as family language) interacted with economic segmentations in inducing variations on national identity feelings that resulted in erosions of the dual CatSpanish identity. Moreover, our findings also showed that the more privileged segments of Catalonian citizenry where those that mostly supported secession, whereas poorer and unprotected citizenry was clearly against it. All the data points to the conclusion that the secessionist challenge was, in fact, a rebellion of the wealthier and well-situated people.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Privileged Rebels: A Longitudinal Analysis of Distinctive Economic Traits of Catalonian Secessionism

2020

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“…he surge, rapid evolution and failed culmination of the recent secessionist attempt at Catalonia was a unique experiment in contemporary Western politics. It carried characteristic ingredients: (1) gigantic and iterated street demonstrations fueled by an unrelenting and skillful activism; (2) absence of a clear secessionist majority within the region; (3) strong impulse and direction given by a Regional Government and an Autonomous Parliament openly confronting Central Powers; (4) systematic pro-secession bias by public media controlled by Autonomous powers; (5) overwhelming social pressure by a continuous presence of secessionist symbols everywhere; (6) successful silencing of the majoritarian non-secessionist citizenry throughout most of the upsurge (Barrio and Field, 2018;Elliott, 2018). All that arising at one of the richest and more advanced Spanish regions, within a democratic context at the heart of the European Union.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…A plethora of interpretations (Amat, 2015(Amat, , 2017; Barrio and Field, 2018;Barceló-Soler, 2013;Boylan, 2015;Crameri, 2014Crameri, , 2015Coll et al, 2018;Cuadras-Morató and Rodon, 2018;Dowling, 2018;Elliot, 2018;Griffiths et al, 2015;Minder, 2017;Morel, 2018;Serrano, 2013), tried to explain the secessionist surge at Catalonia focusing mainly on economic and socio-political issues: a deep economic recession during the preceding years; irritation with malfunctioning and corruption of Spanish parties and institutions; arrogance and passivity of Spain's central government in front of a movement instigated by ambitious and discontent regional elites; weaknesses and inadequacies of the European Union. These factors surely contributed in varying degrees, though they left unexplained why they had uniquely combined within a single European region, to the point of triggering urgent demands for segregation, while similar tensions did not appear in other comparable Southern Europe regions.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…These factors surely contributed in varying degrees, though they left unexplained why they had uniquely combined within a single European region, to the point of triggering urgent demands for segregation, while similar tensions did not appear in other comparable Southern Europe regions. Barrio and Field (2018) proposed that the secessionist push was not simply a bottom-up process where malcontent and selforganized citizens increasingly escalated demands for independence. Longitudinal findings had shown that Catalan political elites were more radical than citizens and that outbidding to win hegemony in the pro-secession camp probably fueled the movement (Barrio and Rodríguez-Teruel, 2017).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Unveiling pathways for the fissure among secessionists and unionists in Catalonia: identities, family language, and media influence

2019

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Catalonian secessionism acquired prominence from 2010 onwards. During the last decade secessionist parties won three regional elections and sustained Governments by tiny majorities at the Autonomous Parliament. Two illegal consultations about selfdetermination were called and around 2 million (38% of population census) supported secession from Spain. An "Independence Declaration" was proclaimed on 27th Oct. 2017, followed by suspension of Home Rule sanctioned by Spanish Parliament that endured till mid-2018. The main consequence of the secessionist push was the build-up of a confrontation between two large segments of Catalan citizenry, unionists and secessionists, which was absent before. This study aims to shed light on the rise of secessionism and the appearance of a deep fissure between these communities. By building upon the complete series of data from iterated official polls (88.538 respondents, 45 surveys), the paper displays the evolving changes along the period 2006-2019 of national identity feelings ("sense of belonging"). Along that period, there were increases exceeding 15 percentage points of "only Catalan" national identity and analogous decreases of "equally Catalan and Spanish" dual national identity. The findings disclosed highly significant covariations between changing trends on national identity feelings with: (1) family/mother language, Catalan vs. Spanish; (2) following regional media versus other media. Since language/ascendancy origins and media consumption trends are closely interrelated, within Catalonia, our discussion focuses on the role played by such ethno-cultural cleavage. Further, statistical analysis for longitudinal data identified several turning points linked to singular political events that likely accentuated polarization around the issue of secession. The findings unveil evolving tracks that could help in the understanding of a process that, in a very short time, produced a severe social division within a fully open and democratic society at the heart of Europe.

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“…They show that secessionist processes should not be taken for granted as citizen-led initiatives and it can be the political elites themselves who trigger and drive a secessionist process forward. 4 In both cases, referendums were unilaterally declared by the secessionist political elites, the processes were more top-down than bottom-up and the central governments declared them illegal. Moreover, in both cases the economic crises, high polarisation and the eventual collapse of the party system played a big role in perpetuating the independence bid.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Independence referendums and nationalist rhetoric: the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

O’Driscoll¹,

Başer

2019

Third World Quarterly

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Using the case study of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) and the 2017 independence referendum, this article examines the nexus between independence referendums, nationalism and political power. It argues that the referendum in the KRI was held due to internal political competition and growing rebellion from the population against the poor economic performance and political situation rather than because the time was right for independence referendum. Focusing on the poor political and financial dynamics, as well as the lack of regional and international support for Kurdish independence, the article argues that independence was not a realistic goal and was rather used as a distraction amid internal turmoil. The example of the referendum in the KRI poses questions about the democratic credibility of such referenda, as the population were voting for an unachievable result and the referendum itself became a tool of internal political competition.

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The push for independence in Catalonia

Cited by 17 publications

References 6 publications

Privileged Rebels: A Longitudinal Analysis of Distinctive Economic Traits of Catalonian Secessionism

Privileged Rebels: A Longitudinal Analysis of Distinctive Economic Traits of Catalonian Secessionism

Unveiling pathways for the fissure among secessionists and unionists in Catalonia: identities, family language, and media influence

Independence referendums and nationalist rhetoric: the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

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