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Over a year ago, the editorial board of the I Regional Science, Policy and Practice i ( I RSPP i ) journal thought that the independence movement (or, in a broader sense, the "right to decide" the relationship to be maintained with the rest of the Spanish state), which is happening in Catalonia, was relevant enough to prepare this Special Issue. As Wagner and Marin point out in their paper, "the Catalan question has become the EU's most serious territorial integrity crisis in recent years and its effect on the perceptions of the European Union remains largely unstudied". Although it is very difficult to specify percentages, without a specific referendum about that, the population of residents in Catalonia who, according to the surveys, seem to want to exercise the "right to decide" (without necessarily meaning that they are in favour of independence) revolves around 70%-80%, while the supporters of independence are around 45%-55%. [Extracted from the article]

Consequences of social trust are comparatively well studied, while its societal determinants are often subject to debate. This paper studies both in the context of Catalan attempts to secede from Spain: First, we test whether Catalonia enjoys higher levels of social capital that it is prevented from capitalizing on. Second, the paper examines whether secessionist movements create animosity and political divisions within society that undermine trust. Employing the nine available waves of the European Social Survey for Spain, we only find weak indications that social trust levels are higher in Catalonia than in the rest of the country. Interestingly, we further find testimony of a purely transient "exuberance effect" after secession became a real option, indicating that the long‐run evolution of social trust may best be thought of as a stable punctuated equilibrium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last decade has witnessed a significant rise in European secessionist movements leading to considerable political turmoil (e.g., protest, repression, imprisonment of political leaders). While scholars have identified a number of economic and political factors that influence the support for secessionist movements, fewer studies have focused on its psychological roots. Using evidence from Catalonia, this paper investigates the role of two fundamental individual traits, Need for Affect (NFA) and Need for Cognition (NFC), in influencing the support for Catalan independence. It analyzes a large representative sample of adult Catalans in 2013, during the peak of the secessionist movement, to examine the influence of NFA and NFC, and their interaction, on the intention to vote in favor of seceding from Spain. Results indicate that individuals who have high levels in NFA and those who have high levels of NFA and low levels of NFC are more likely to support independence. In other words, individuals who have low levels of both NFA and NFC have the lowest support for independence. In conclusion, these findings highlight the importance of considering individual differences in psychological motives in order to fully understand support for secessionist movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Using a historical institutionalist framework emphasizing the importance of transformative events, this paper seeks to explain the sudden emergence of self-determination claims in Hong Kong and their transformation into separatist ones in Catalonia. The paper argues that the inflexibility of the state in addressing moderate demands for regional autonomy has played a major role in the emergence and radicalization of these demands. In Hong Kong, the 1997 Handover from British to Chinese sovereignty was originally presented as an opportunity for self-governance under the principle of "Hong Kong People ruling Hong Kong" and the "One Country, Two Systems" formula. If Hong Kong nationalism was practically unheard of in the early years of the Handover, the unconciliatory attitude of the central government towards moderate demands for the actualization of the autonomy and democratization frameworks vested in Hong Kong's Basic Law has directly contributed to the formation of today's emerging self-determination movement. In Catalonia, the 2010 decision of the Spanish Constitutional Court to annul some articles of the reform to the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia and to interpret others narrowly represented a transformative event that took Catalonia onto the pathway of secessionist politics. The secessionist turn was then further fed by the on-going refusal of the central government to negotiate with the Catalan government, notably on the notion of a popular consultation on the political future of the Autonomous Community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Over the past few decades, Europe has witnessed the rise of secessionist movements driven by national minorities and other separatist groups. This phenomenon is currently capturing the world's attention and is perceived as a significant challenge to states, governments, and global politics. In the context of liberal political theory, none of the theories of secession has appeared to find a healthy balance of considerations between the anti-secessionists and the pro-secessionists, and the less permissive view and the more permissive view. They are also incompetent to formulate the specific conditions under which secession might be justified or legitimate practically. Moreover, as demonstrated in the cases of Catalonia and Scotland, all of the theories neglect the economic implications of secession, which have crucially fueled and driven contemporary secessionist movements. This paper seeks to develop a conceptual framework for secession as reflected by the cases of secessionist movements in Catalonia and Scotland. It proposes that Plebiscitary approaches require modification to safeguard a flawless state and suggests reconsidering the electoral procedure. The first-tier referendum is to be conducted within seceding territories and then the second-tier referendum is to be held statewide. Consequently, after a negotiation process over economic and other important concerns between the seceding groups and the national government has been concluded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Separatist aspirations in Europe are now a captivating issue. Regions like Scotland and Catalonia deserve special attention. The aim of the article is to show differences in the perception of both cases, due to their frequent comparing in journalistic papers. The study consists of two parts that concern Scotland and Catalonia. In each of them the institutional and legal positions of the regions were taken into the consideration. In addition, the course of events in Scotland and Catalonia in 2014 and 2017 was considered in the context of the independence referendums carried out in these regions. The summary of this article consists of comparison of the factors which show that there are no grounds for adapting analogy between Scotland and Catalonia. Factors that have been taken into account are: the legal order and the regulations used to define the legal status of the regions, and also the relations between central and subnational (regional) levels in Scotland and Catalonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of secessionist movements in multinational states in general and in Catalonia in particular has put into question the ability of regional autonomy to accommodate secession. This is largely because the literature on federalism and territorial politics overwhelmingly focuses on a one-sided perspective of self-rule and autonomy when analysing the territorial distribution of power and neglects the other equally crucial aspect of shared rule. This paper questions the validity of this one-sided perspective, conceptualises different types of shared rule and their causes and consequences, and illustrates the difference that shared rule can make in dealing with the secessionist movement in Catalonia. It is suggested that shared rule can be regarded as an integrative mechanism for the accommodation of Catalan aspirations for secession. Autonomy cannot be guaranteed and cannot stunt self-determination impulses without shared rule. Creating a well-functioning intergovernmental system will be a serious challenge, but without such a system, it will be difficult to accommodate Catalonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Are secessionisms from and within the EU comparable? What motivates them and to what extent do they pose similar challenges to EU territorial governance? This article addresses these questions by comparing the framing of the British Leave campaign and the Catalan independence movement. Drawing on the FraTerr database and method, the analysis suggests that secessionism from the EU and secessionism within the EU are different political phenomena despite sharing an emphasis on sovereignty and the common goal of breaking-up from an existing polity. Secessionism from the EU is primarily a call for the recovery of lost sovereignty and of classical functions of the state such as border control. Secessionism within the EU invokes sovereignty as the right to external self-determination and adds narratives around a better future and greater democratic quality and social justice. These two types of secessionism pose different challenges to EU territorial governance because the first entails a full rejection of the European project while the latter calls for a review of European multi-level governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The so-called procés (process of independence of Catalonia) has triggered abundant research seeking to analyse what factors explain the Catalan pro-independence movement. In contrast, there is a gap in the literature with regard to the Basque case, which this paper seeks to fill. The prevailing analyses to date have typically considered identity/ethnicity as the key variables to account for the pro-independence movement in the Basque Country. However, this study, seeks to go beyond this approach, to analyse the influence of other more instrumental factors. Based on the 1995-2016 period covered in this paper, the main conclusion is that the identity factor is key to the understanding of the pro-independence movement, but that it is far from being the only one. Our analysis has also showed that both political and economic conjunctural factors are important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Catalana de Dret Públic is the property of Revista Catalana de Dret Public and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The end of the First World War was a crucial time for nationalist leaders and minority communities across the European continent and beyond. The impact of the post-war spread of self-determination on the redrawing of Eastern European borders and on the claims of colonial independence movements has been extensively researched. By contrast, the international historiography has paid little attention to minority nationalist movements in Western Europe. This article focuses on three regions (Catalonia, Flanders and South Tyrol) that experienced considerable sub-state national mobilization in the interwar period. We aim to understand whether the leaders of Western European minorities and stateless nations shared the same enthusiasm as their anti-colonial and Eastern European counterparts for the new international order that self-determination seemed to foreshadow in the months following the end of the First World War. Because the American President Woodrow Wilson stood out as the most prominent purveyor of the new international legitimacy of self-determination, the article further examines how Western European nationalist movements exploited Wilson's image and advocacy to achieve their own goals. Nationalist forces in Catalonia, Flanders and South Tyrol initially mobilized self-determination and referred to Wilson as a symbol of national liberation, but this instrumentalization of self-determination was not sustained. Large-scale mobilization occurred only in Catalonia, and, even there, it disappeared suddenly in spring 1919. Furthermore, sub-state nationalist movements in Western Europe tended to mobilize self-determination to gain regional autonomy, rather than full independence, thus pursuing internal, not external, self-determination. The willingness of these movements to privilege autonomy over full independence made them more receptive to compromise. Radical forces would become stronger only in the 1930s and largely for reasons not directly connected to the post-war mobilization around self-determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the independence and autonomy movement in Catalonia, Spain, and responds to concepts of nationalism and nations without states in the books "Nations without States" and "The Identity of Nations" and an article in the journal by professor M. Guibernau. It discusses claims of self-government in the context of statehood, emancipatory nationalism and national identity in Catalonia, and support for pro-independence movements in Catalonia.

Between September 2009 and April 2011, around one-half of the Catalan municipalities held unofficial referendums on independence from Spain, in which more than 800,000 citizens took part. However, the participation rates were unevenly distributed across Catalonia. In this paper, using an original data set, we aim to respond to two relevant questions: first, why in some municipalities the referendum took place and in others it did not occur. Second, why did the referendum achieve high rates of turnout in some localities and much lower participation in others. We find that the resources available to the movement, the intensity of the mobilization efforts, the participatory tradition of the municipalities and the size of the nationalist 'sentiment pool' in each locality explain to a great extent the internal variation in nationalist mobilization in Catalonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can secessionism be a basis for affective or social polarization? Despite much research on independence movements, their relationship to polarization, a key mechanism theorized as increasing the risk of violent conflict, remains less understood. We argue that the issue of secession can affectively polarize along both policy and ethnic group lines even in the case of nonviolent disputes, and posit a number of expectations regarding such secessionist-based polarization. We test our argument with the case of Catalonia, a substate territory that has experienced a deep secessionist crisis since 2017, using new data from a panel survey and embedded experiments fielded across two key time periods. We find that individuals' secessionist preferences condition high levels of affective polarization, in that pro- and anti-independence advocates have strong negative views of one another. In addition, there is spillover in terms of stereotypes of associated language groups (i.e. Catalan, Spanish). Importantly, we find a group of moderates in between the two policy poles that exhibit far less polarization. Finally, we document the persistence of these overall patterns. Our results contribute to understanding the underexplored polarization dynamics of secessionist movements, particularly in contexts where high intensity violence (e.g. terrorism, civil war) has not occurred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the aftermath of the 2010 legal and political crisis surrounding the status of Catalonia within Spain, the Catalan proindependence civil society undertook an extensive campaign during which they produced, translated and distributed many documents in favor of independence. The aim of this campaign was to make the international community, especially the European Union, aware of the Catalan independence cause and ultimately to garner support from outside Catalonia and Spain. Our study aims to understand the way pro-independence discourse in translation depicts the crisis at large, and more specifically the relationship between Catalonia and Spain in the early stages of the crisis. To this end, we conducted a critical discourse analysis using Chilton and Schäffner's strategic functions, drawing on three books produced, translated and distributed between 2010 and 2014 and that deal primarily with the independence of this autonomous community of Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent growth of the Catalan separatist movement is traditionally interpreted as a consequence of the bad economic performance of the region, or rather the whole country. This paper, however, aims to prove that despite the economy's unquestionable role in the intensification of the nationalist conflict there may be other important factors involved. One of them is the case of the central government's loss of credibility and grievances felt by the Catalan people. This may have led to an increase in separatist tendencies. On the other hand, the general political environment can be seen as a determinant of bilateral trade. Th erefore, the bad relations between Catalonia and Spain and the increasing separatism in Catalonia affect negatively the mutual trade links between the region and the rest of the country. However, this effect acts in both directions, as trade diversification and internationalization may also have encouraged separatism. The lack of credibility of the government of Mariano Rajoy and the Popular Party has resulted in responses by the inhabitants of Catalonia which are the completely opposite of those expected by the prime minister and his party. The absence of dialogue from the central government encourages the separatist movement rather than discouraging it, and threats act as a very strong motivator for those who desire an independent Catalan state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wide tensions regarding the organization of nation-state power have been triggered over the last years in the UK and Spain. By contrast, in the UK, (i) the plebiscite on Scottish Independence has been characterized since 2014 so far by a regular hegemony of the SNP in Scotland, and (ii) more recently, distinct resilient responses to tackle COVID-19 have dramatically shifted perceptions about the potential constitutional arrangements in Wales partially opposing a state-centric vision of the UK. By contrast, the role played by the constitutionally illegal but socially constitutive referendum in Catalonia on 1 October 2017, remarkably provoked the re-emergence of the Spanish far-right narrative through the surge of the new political party called Vox. In both cases, the urban in Glasgow, Cardiff, and Barcelona has been shaping various oppositions to state-centric agendas, and such oppositions have shaped elections in the UK and Spain. This article sheds light on the distinct, emerging, and emancipatory urban citizenship regimes in Catalonia, Scotland, and Wales, particularly illustrating the roles that Barcelona, Glasgow, and Cardiff, respectively, are playing in articulating a counter-reaction by rescaling a state-centric vision. This article employs past elections' evidence to illustrate such regimes amid postpandemic times in datafied states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the conflict over the secession of Catalonia, the institutions dominated by supporters of Catalan independence, most specifically the Catalan Parliament, constructed a narrative that presented the quest for independence as a conflict of sovereignty opposing the Spanish state and its central authorities against the democratic principles embodied by Catalan Parliament. This narrative side-lined the linkage between democracy and rule of law so central to liberal democracies. In doing so, it generated a new conflict at the practical and narrative level; namely, one between democracy understood as extreme majoritarianism, and the rule of law understood as legality. This article traces and explores the formation of this narrative and draws out in detail the normative implications associated with a conflict between majoritarianism and legality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many charges have been made against Catalan secessionism from a normative or ideological point of view. In this article we would like to focus on the accusation that the secessionist movement is xenophobic, racist or ethnicist. Between 2017 and 2019, and particularly since Quim Torra was named president of the Generalitat, this has been the dominant criticism in the arguments set out against secessionism. We are interested in evaluating the strength of this accusation in this contribution. In this respect, we focus on the discourse and the main legislative actions adopted by the Catalan institutions since embarking on a determined bid for sovereignty, popularly called the Process, in 2010. Our conclusion is that both from discursive and legislative points of view, it can be concluded that Catalan secessionism cannot be considered as an ethnicist movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the electoral situation in Spain, has been marked by the issue of Catalan independence, which has conditioned the electoral agenda of all parties and the frames of political discourse. Against the idea of a violent movement that the Spanish nationalist parties and government want to transmit to Spanish society about the separatist movement, the nationalist parties' and Catalan government turn to nonviolent discourse and action. This nonviolent behavior is based on what in the past century was defended by some public intellectuals, such as Albert Camus. Indeed, Camus is our exemplar because he also raises issues that continue to be relevant, especially in advocating principles and methods of nonviolent political action. Furthermore, Camus did so in situations of war and injustice through tactics typical of political communication the of activist groups. This article wants to show how current and how effective the ideas of Camus are today, when it is 60 years since his death, in some national electoral discourses and actions, and serve for activism PR purposes in the political communication frame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catalonia's growing calls for independence have stunned the international press. Current conventional wisdom sees the issue of secession as something caused by the disastrous development of the Spanish economy in the last years. However, there is more to this than purely economic arguments. In this article I argue that, although economic factors also play a role, Catalan political demands for independence are a product of a recent critical juncture. In particular, I show that throughout history Catalanist political actors have pursued three goals: a democratic system, a more modern economy and the implementation of a plurinational state. The third demand is still vivid and has pushed Catalans to diverge from the traditional path: instead of seeking a new path towards accommodation within Spain, Catalans have decided to take the secessionist route. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the return to democracy, the negotiations on decentralisation of policies and decision-making developed with the framework of Comunidades Autónomas had been intended as a way of dealing with the existent tensions between Spanish and regional nationalisms. However, the escalation of the tension between regions reached a new level with the unofficial referendum in Catalonia over potential independence from Spain in October 2017 together with the increase in support for the first time in 40 years for a Spanish extreme right-wing party, VOX. The reasons behind both the support for VOX and the support for Catalonian independence can be linked to the degree of discontent over regional and Spanish nationalistic ideas respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth in Catalonia are caught in the middle of a hotly contested political conflict over the region's possible independence from Spain. Focusing on a large sample of secondary school students (n = 1550; 24.6% immigrants) from 30 schools, we use multilevel modelling to investigate identification with competing national identities and their implications for xenophobia. The larger social context is reflected in native students viewing Catalan and Spanish identifications as incompatible with one another, whereas this is not the case for immigrant students, who are much more likely to identify as both Catalan and Spanish, albeit at a lower level. Investigating the perceived basis of what makes someone Catalan, native students viewed their national identity to be a matter of both ascription (e.g. birth, legal status) and practice (e.g. embracing traditions, personal feelings), whereas the identifications of both Muslim and non-Muslim immigrants were exclusively based on viewing Catalan identity as a matter of practice. Conceiving of Catalan identity as a matter of practice was also linked to lower levels of xenophobia. Our findings are consistent with the conception of Catalan national identity as cosmopolitan and welcoming to immigrants, in line with outreach of the Catalan independence movement seeking to attract support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main goals of the Catalan nationalist movement toward independence initiated in 2012 was to internationalize the conflict between, in theory, two sides: Catalonia and Spain. In the case of Catalonia, its storytelling tried to offer to the world the view of an entire society intensely mobilized in pro of freedom and independence by peaceful methods, while Spain would be incarnated in an elitist irreducible and defensive government closed to reason and negotiation. This article describes the use of strategic communication (mainly public diplomacy and public relations), a soft power and post-modern resource, by the pro-independence movement in opposition to the use of modern and hard power means by Spain's government (including appeal to courts, police, and financial pressure, among other means). It describes the efficient use of strategic communication, including para-diplomacy efforts as well as positive press coverage and even "fake news", by the Catalan pro-independence movement. Nonetheless, the movement was not able to gain the political support of supra-national organizations like the European Union (EU), the United Nations (UN) or even some major powers such as Germany, which had supported other independence processes in the past. The conclusion is that an efficient use of strategic communication seems to have its limits in the internationalization of internal conflicts and in altering the political status quo when the threatened nation state, in this case Spain, has a solid international position and good democratic credentials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Croatian & Comparative Public Administration is the property of Institut za Javnu Upravu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Professional Geographer is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

While until recently the ethnicity of Castilian speakers in Catalonia seemed to be heading towards its twilight, the stimulation of ethnic fragmentation resulting from the independence process appears to have upended the assimilationist trend. This article begins by explaining the former twilight of the ethnicity of Castilian speakers. Although the evolution of assimilation as an empirical reality on the ground was one of the reasons for this, a stronger determinant was the consensus between the main political and social forces that prescribed the indistinction between Catalan and Spanish speakers in the public sphere. The case of Catalonia is appropriate for advocating a relatively autonomous role for an ethnic blindness policy in the theory of assimilation. Secondly, the article addresses how the independence movement, which presents itself as a non-ethnic project, has developed a strategy for attracting working-class Castilian speakers which involves recognising them in ethnic terms. This may lead to a process of boundary-blurring and broadening of the mainstream (recognising Castilian-speaking heritage as part of Catalan culture), but also legitimates an ethnicity that other political agents may mobilise with opposing political aims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mediterranean Journal of Communication / Revista Mediterránea de Comunicación is the property of Revista Mediterranea de Comunicacion / Mediterranean Journal of Communication and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Immigration has extended to regions with sub-state nationalist movements, such as Scotland, Friesland, the Basque Country and, as is the focus of this research, Catalonia. In a context of political upheaval in the region, this article aims to examine the impact of the successive waves of immigration to Catalonia on the modern independence movement. The respective status of the immigrant population in Catalonia is a major issue about which there is a divergence of opinion. This study approaches attitudes toward immigrants through the threat-benefit framework, which perceives immigrants as both threatening and beneficial for the receiving society. The data, gathered from six focus groups and ten narrative interviews, reveal a complexity of attitudes on the impact of immigration on the secessionist movement. Two themes emerge in the informants' discussion: 'Immigration: Rising Benefit' and '(New) Immigration: (New) Challenge'. The comments of the respondents indicate that, against the backdrop of the independence process in the territory, there exists a range of views on the impact of the various waves of migration to Catalonia. This study suggests that a fuller understanding of the situation in the territory may be facilitated by qualitative approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role and use of social media in the ongoing movement for Catalan independence by focusing on two pro-independence civil society organizations, Feministes per la Independència (FxI) and Òmnium Cultural (OC). Drawing upon elite interview data with representatives from both organizations and Catalan parliamentarians, it posits that social media platforms serve as crucial vehicles for these civil society organizations, particularly in terms of empowerment, mobilization, organization, participation and resistance. The increasing salience of digital activism in Catalonia is such that social media platforms have become fundamental pillars of the independence movement, helping to overcome state-imposed institutional obstacles as well as internationalize the issue across transnational networks. The analysis, however, also reveals a darker side to engagement with social media including the proliferation of biased narratives, dissemination of misinformation and trolling. On the basis of these reflections, the article concludes that while engagement with social media entails risks, hitherto such platforms have proved to be highly effective and will continue to be pivotal in promoting and generating support for the independence cause. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article discusses the independence process in Catalonia, Spain. Topics discussed include a brief history of the Catalonian independence, the concept of sovereignty and territorial integrity in Catalonia, and the secession process in Catalonia. Other topics include the importance of exports as an important part of the growth of Catalonia's economy and different aspect that could affect the viability of a Catalonian State such as economic, social, and cultural.

Called two years ahead of schedule, the 2012 Catalan election was held in a context of economic recession, controversial austerity measures, growing political disaffection, and increasing popular support for Catalonia's independence. The election was mainly marked by the decision of the incumbent moderate nationalists to advocate for the region's secession from Spain, in the wake of a massive rally in support of the independence of Catalonia. In this article we report on the context, the campaign, and the results of the election, and assess the likely reasons why an unexpectedly high number of voters chose to defect from the incumbent. Additionally, we use survey data to investigate the rapid conversion of a substantial portion of the Catalan public to favour independence, formerly regarded as a rather extreme position, after the 2010 Constitutional Court's controversial decision to curtail the region's reformed Statute of Autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses democracy, self-determination and secession in Catalonia, Spain. It examines the implications of an autonomous Catalonia, particularly regarding the European Union (EU), the economic conditions of Catalonia, and Catalan nationalism. The author states that the future of Catalonia should be determined by its inhabitants.

Understandings of the legitimacy of self-determination movements have shifted since the beginning of the 20th Century. Two of the most influential theories to emerge regarding the right to sovereignty are the Primary Right and the Remedial Right of self-determination. The discourse of these two opposing theories is examined through the contemporary Catalonian secession movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The national movements of sub-state national societies are divided into two or three competing political orientations (independentists, autonomists, and federalists), which vary over time. This article compares the process that led to the founding of the ADQ (autonomism) in Quebec, with the process that culminated in the transformation and de facto re-founding of ERC (independentism) in Catalonia during the period 1976-2005. Using the cases of two nationalist parties in two different national movements that have successfully established new political orientations, I analyze the political origins of this form of temporal variation. My outcome variable is the “tipping point” at which these nationalist political parties get established. This “tipping point” was reached through a temporal sequence that evolved in four phases. In each of these phases, a key variable was involved: the existence of a preexistent ideology, the occurrence of a central state constitutional moment, an impulse from the sphere of sociological nationalism, and the consolidation of a new leadership nucleus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]