Abstract
This article advances understandings of secessionist strategies by examining how and why secessionist movements make the case for creating a new sovereign state. It draws on new empirical data to examine the ways in which pro-independence parties in Catalonia have justified their calls for the creation of an independent Catalan Republic between 2008 and 2018. The findings challenge the widespread scholarly assumption that secessionist mobilisation is underpinned by grievances—cultural, economic, and political—against the state. We find that arguments for an independent Catalonia rarely include cultural claims. Instead, independence is advocated as a way of resolving political and economic grievances and of creating a better, more democratic, and just Catalan society. Such justifications are highly influenced by the political context in which pro-independence parties try to advance towards secession. These insights advance on extant explanations of secessionist mobilisation by highlighting the distinctive nature of, and the motives for, secessionist claims.
Highlights
Scholars of secession have generally assumed that seces‐ sionist mobilisation is underpinned by a sense of cul‐ tural, economic, or political grievance against the state, deriving from perceptions that a national community is being unfairly or unjustly treated in some way
We conclude by considering the broader sig‐ nificance of these findings: They advance our under‐ standing of the nature of and motives for secession‐ ist behaviour and provide the basis for re‐thinking the nature of on‐going independence debates in Catalonia
We focus on the period between 2008 and 2018, a decade which encompasses key develop‐ ments in secessionist mobilisation: Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC)’s re‐assertion of its secessionist position, the two attempts at holding an independence referendum, the Catalan Parliament’s unilateral declaration of independence on 27 October 2017, and the subsequent response of the Spanish state (Balcells et al, 2020)
Summary
Scholars of secession have generally assumed that seces‐ sionist mobilisation is underpinned by a sense of cul‐ tural, economic, or political grievance against the state, deriving from perceptions that a national community is being unfairly or unjustly treated in some way. This article challenges such grievance‐based explanations of secession by providing new evidence of how and why secessionist movement justify their calls for the cre‐ ation of a new sovereign state. We conclude by considering the broader sig‐ nificance of these findings: They advance our under‐ standing of the nature of and motives for secession‐ ist behaviour and provide the basis for re‐thinking the nature of on‐going independence debates in Catalonia
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