Bulletin n. 2-3/2013 | ||
February 2014 | ||
Guibernau Montserrat |
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Secessionism in Catalonia: After Democracy | ||
in Ethnopolitics , Volume 12, Issue 4, 2013 , 2013 , 368-393 | ||
The article is divided into four main parts. First it offers a theoretical framework, which includes key concepts such as nation, state and nation without state. Second, it examines the origins of modern Catalan nationalism by tracing back its roots to Franco's dictatorship and the subsequent transition to democracy. Third, it analyses the reasons behind the qualitative shift from devolution to secession embodied in the rise of a novel bottom-up Catalan secessionist movement, which has developed in the last five years or so. This movement supports the idea of holding a referendum on Catalan independence from Spain—so far, strictly forbidden by the Spanish state. This part also analyses the impediments to a ‘referendum’ on Catalan independence founded upon the Spanish Constitution. The final part focuses on the main arguments invoked by Catalans when prompted to account for the rise of secessionism, only recently introduced into the Catalan political landscape. | ||