 | The Rise of Catalan Independence: Spain’s Territorial Crisis Subjects: Politics & International Relations; Social Sciences; European Politics; Politics & the Media; Political Behavior and Participation; Sociology & Social Policy; Political Communication; Racial & Ethnic Politics; Political Sociology; As recently as the mid-2000s, Catalonia was described and analysed by scholars as exhibiting a non-secessionist nationalism and was seen within Europe and beyond as a role model for successful devolution which had much to teach other parts of the world. The Spanish state seemed to be on a journey towards an authentic federal order and was generally admired. However, the new century has been marked by an ever-growing independence movement, with 47.8 per cent of Catalonia voting in favour of independence in September 2015. Pro-independence mobilization has produced a rupture in political relations with the rest of Spain leading to a sovereignty struggle with Madrid. This book explores how an accumulation of long-, medium- and short-term factors have produced the current situation and why the Spanish territorial model has been unable or possibly, unwilling, to respond. The Catalan question is not purely a Spanish problem: it has direct implications for the traditional nation-state model, in Europe and beyond. Andrew Dowling is a Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies at Cardiff University. He has previously written Catalonia since the Spanish Civil War: Reconstructing the Nation (2012), which was published in Catalan as La Reconstrucció Nacional de Catalunya, 1939-2012 (2013). |
