Reducing the gap between leaders and voters? Elite polarization, outbidding competition, and the rise of secessionism in Catalonia

Barrio, Astrid; Teruel, Juan Rodríguez

doi:10.1080/01419870.2016.1213400

Cited by 66 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…In our survey, just over two in five (40.6%) of Catalans answered yes to the question, "Do you want Catalonia to become an independent state?," compared with just over half (51.1%) who answered no, and 8.3% who either did not know or did not answer. 7 The term polarization has been used by some analysts to refer to the division between those who support and those who oppose independence, e.g., (Barrio and Field 2018;Barrio and Juan 2017;Bertomeus 2018;Elliott 2018;Llaneras 2017;Oller et al 2019a). Certainly, evidence of a polarized society would stand in accordance with the hypothesis of the continuing existence of Linz's three-cornered conflict.…”

Section: Independentists Versus Unionistsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conflict in Catalonia: A Sociological Approximation

Miley

Garvía

2019

Genealogy

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This article follows the approach originally pioneered by Juan Linz to the empirical study of nationalism. We make use of original survey data to situate the emergent social division around the question of independence within a broader constellation of power relations. We bring into focus a variety of demographic, cultural, behavioral and attitudinal indicators with which this division is associated. We emphasize the special salience of language practices and ideologies in conditioning, if not determining, attitudes towards independence. We stress the continuing legacy of what Linz famously referred to as a “three-cornered conflict” among “regional nationalists, the central government and immigrant workers,” which has long conditioned democratic politics in the region. More concretely, we show how the reinforcing cleavages of language and class are reflected in, and indeed have been exacerbated by, the ongoing political conflict between pro-independence and pro-unionist camps in Catalonia. At the same time, we highlight that near half of the Catalan citizenry has come to register a rather intense preference in favor of independence, and we conclude that this sociological reality renders it quite difficult for Spanish authorities to enforce the will of the Spanish majority without appearing to tyrannize the Catalan minority.

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Section: Independentists Versus Unionistsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conflict in Catalonia: A Sociological Approximation

Miley

Garvía

2019

Genealogy

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“…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). Hence the secessionist surge could have depended also from top-down influences arising from harsh competition between nationalist elites and parties to keep a dominant position within the Region.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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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“…Among the Basque parties, the dominant and regionally governing Basque Nationalist Party (Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea-Partido Nacionalista Vasco, EAJ-PNV) as well as the smaller and more radical alliance between separatist parties Euskal Herria Bildu (Basque for: 'Basque Country Unite', EH Bildu) kept their positions between 2011 and 2017. Catalan competition has been a lot less stable than Basque competition, reଏecting the radicalizing process of secessionist outbidding among Catalan nationalist parties (Barrio and Rodríguez-Teruel 2017). The Republican Left of Catalonia (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, ERC) has long been advocating Catalan independence.…”

Section: Party Competition In Spain and Bosnia And Herzegovinaface Vamentioning

confidence: 99%

The second edition of the EPAC expert survey on ethnonationalism in party competition – testing for validity and reliability

Zuber

Szöcsik

2018

Regional & Federal Studies

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This research note presents EPAC 2017, a dataset resulting from the second round of an expert survey on ethnonationalism in party competition. EPAC provides cross-sectional data on the positions of (ethno-) national and mainstream parties on an ethnonational (also often referred to as 'territorial' or 'centre-periphery') dimension, as well as other important dimensions of political competition. The 2017 edition covers 222 political parties in 22 multinational European countries. The research note presents the main survey items and performs a series of validity and reliability tests on the data. Results show that EPAC 2017 provides valid and reliable measures of party positions on an ethnonational dimension. A short analysis of party system changes in Spain and Bosnia and Herzegovina illustrates the opportunities of combining the 2011 and 2017 editions. The combined dataset allows studying the mobilization of the centre-periphery cleavage in party competition across Eastern and Western Europe and over time.

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Reducing the gap between leaders and voters? Elite polarization, outbidding competition, and the rise of secessionism in Catalonia

Cited by 66 publications

References 37 publications

Conflict in Catalonia: A Sociological Approximation

Conflict in Catalonia: A Sociological Approximation

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

The second edition of the EPAC expert survey on ethnonationalism in party competition – testing for validity and reliability

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