Territorial politics in Catalonia and Scotland: Nations in flux

By Paul Anderson

Nations in flux explores the evolution of territorial politics in Catalonia and Scotland since 2010, offering an in-depth, comparative analysis of developments in both cases and drawing on interviews with political elites whilst providing a compelling snapshot of the growing relevance of nationalism in contemporary society and politics. Empirically, this book analyses the experiences and effects of referendums on independence, Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic, and examines some of the most pressing tensions within the existing territorial models. It highlights the need for further reform in both cases and identifies necessary changes to ensure the institutionalisation of more accommodative territorial models and thus, the continuation of political partnership between Catalonia and Spain, and Scotland and the UK. Overall, the book raises important questions about the accommodation of diversity in plurinational states in the twenty-first century.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Release date: May 28, 2024
• ISBN: 9781526163066

Paul Anderson

Poul Anderson (1926–2001) grew up bilingual in a Danish American family. After discovering science fiction fandom and earning a physics degree at the University of Minnesota, he found writing science fiction more satisfactory. Admired for his “hard” science fiction, mysteries, historical novels, and “fantasy with rivets,” he also excelled in humor. He was the guest of honor at the 1959 World Science Fiction Convention and at many similar events, including the 1998 Contact Japan 3 and the 1999 Strannik Conference in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Besides winning the Hugo and Nebula Awards, he has received the Gandalf, Seiun, and Strannik, or “Wanderer,” Awards. A founder of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, he became a Grand Master, and was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. In 1952 he met Karen Kruse; they married in Berkeley, California, where their daughter, Astrid, was born, and they later lived in Orinda, California. Astrid and her husband, science fiction author Greg Bear, now live with their family outside Seattle.

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Territorial politics in Catalonia and Scotland

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Territorial politics in Catalonia and Scotland

Nations in flux

Paul Anderson

MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © Paul Anderson 2024

The right of Paul Anderson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Published by Manchester University Press

Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL

www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk

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ISBN 978 1 5261 6305 9 hardback

First published 2024

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Cover: Scottish Independence Rally, George Square, Glasgow, 2019 3.

Image: LornaMCampbell/openverse. CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Contents

List of figures

Acknowledgements

List of abbreviations

Introduction

1 The politics of accommodation in plurinational states

2 Nationalism, autonomy and secessionism in Catalonia and Scotland

3 Territorial politics in Catalonia: institutional instability, judicial dominance and constitutional crisis

4 Territorial politics in Scotland: enhanced autonomy, taking back control and constitutional contestation

Conclusion: Nations in flux

Epilogue: Unsettled constitutional futures

References

Index

Figures

3.1 Territorial preferences in Catalonia 2010–2020.

4.1 Territorial preferences in Scotland 2010–2020.

Acknowledgements

During the writing of this book, I have incurred many debts of gratitude. First and foremost, I would like to thank my academic mentor and good friend Soeren Keil for showing confidence in me and my work, providing invaluable feedback, offering constant encouragement, support and advice and nurturing my interest and enthusiasm for the study of territorial politics.

Many of the ideas presented in this book were discussed at various conferences and workshops long before they reached their present shape, and I am grateful for all the valuable comments that I have received. I have been helped by many colleagues and friends working on territorial politics in Spain, the UK and beyond. Special mention goes to Karlo Basta, Coree Brown Swan, Daniel Cetrà, Anwen Elias, Carles Ferreria, Alain Gagnon, Mireia Grau Creus, James Griffiths, Guy Laforest, Tom Lundberg, Ferran Requejo, Johanna Schnabel, Judith Sijstermans, Wilfried Swenden and the late Michael Burgess, who have each influenced this book in different ways, from generously discussing aspects of the analysis and offering suggestions, to sharing resources, answering questions, providing encouragement and being genuinely nice people.

This book was started in the Politics and International Relations Department at Canterbury Christ Church University and finished at the International Relations and Politics Department at Liverpool John Moores University. I would like to thank all my colleagues at both institutions for their advice and encouragement and providing a supportive and intellectual environment in which to work. At LJMU, I'd like to extend particular thanks to Dan Feather, Christinna Hazzard, Matt Hill, Paddy Hoey, André Keil, Jan Lee Ludvigsen, Pete Millward, Peter O’Reilly and Jack Sugden for their collegiality, friendship and support in completing this book.

I am enormously grateful to the politicians who gave up their time to be interviewed for this project. I'd also like to record my appreciation to UACES, the Centre for Modern and Contemporary History at LJMU and the University's QR funds for their financial support to complete the fieldwork and final writing phase. I'd also like to thank Rob Byron at Manchester University Press for his support, guidance and patience.

Special thanks to all my friends and family who have supported me on this intellectual endeavour and for offering encouragement, support and much-needed distractions. Special mention goes to Brogan Anderson, Jack Bidewell, Emma Colgan-Blair, Elena Connell, Rich Cross, Jennifer Fallon, Matt Flack, Colin Graham, Harriet Kersey, Athene Lane-Martin, Mathew Laughton, Sarah Jane Lee de Abreu, John Paul McAllister, Chris McCool, Keri McCool and Tom Sharkey. A special mention to Victòria Escrig Vilarroig, Steven Kemp and Rebecca Tildesley who hosted me during my fieldwork stays in Catalonia.

I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my gran, Margaret Anderson, for her unwavering love and support. My gran has encouraged me to always aim high, and in all areas of life to live and do well. Without her steadfast support and encouragement, sage advice and sense of humour, this book would never have happened. Finally, I would like to dedicate this book to my good friend Simon Bransden, who sadly passed away in 2022 and is sorely missed.

Abbreviations

Introduction

Nationalism is as potent a force in domestic and global politics in the twenty-first century as it has been in any other. The onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 illuminated the prevalence of growing nationalist narratives, precipitating on one hand a ‘rally round the flag’ effect in many countries, and strategies of credit-taking and blame-shifting instrumentalised by nationalists and populists on the other (Anderson et al. 2023). The growing relevance of nationalism was amplified further in 2021 amid the prevailing discourse of ‘vaccine nationalism’ as countries competed in the race to inoculate their populations. Periods of high politics aside, a glance around the globe in recent years further underlines the contemporary prominence of nationalism, from the protectionist, populist and nationalist narratives of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Narendra Modi in India and Donald Trump in the USA to the rise of far-right nationalist parties in European states such as Austria, Germany and Italy. Spain and the United Kingdom (UK) are no exceptions. This is most widely associated with the minority nationalist movements in Catalonia and Scotland, but state-wide nationalist trends are not only present, but in recent years have gained significant traction.

The ‘taking back control’ narrative of the Brexit campaign precipitated an intensification of a Eurosceptic, Anglo-centric British nationalist sentiment in the UK, while the electoral rise of the authoritarian conservative Vox from 2018 further cemented a rise in right-wing Spanish nationalism. The experiences of these contemporary phenomena raise important questions in the study of territorial politics in Catalonia and Scotland, specifically the accommodation of plurinational diversity within liberal democratic states. The increasing prevalence of state nationalism (Cetrà and Brown Swan 2020) coupled with the vociferous self-determination claims of minority nationalist movements (Lecours 2021) reify the ongoing challenge in developing ‘diversity-cognizant institutional frameworks’ in plurinational contexts (Gagnon and Tremblay 2019: 137).¹ Despite processes of political decentralisation in Spain in the late 1970s and the UK in the late 1990s, the surge of secessionism in recent years underlines the continuing challenge to forge a stable yet dynamic equilibrium between the aspirations, expectations and demands of majority and minority communities within plurinational settings.

The aim of this book is to explore and compare the principal developments of territorial politics in Catalonia and Scotland between 2010 and 2020. To do this, the book examines the main structures that shape autonomy in Catalonia and Scotland, and the roles and trajectories of the key actors, namely the courts, minority nationalist and state nationalist movements. A central theme of the book is the vulnerability of current territorial configurations to encroachment, interference and neglect by central authorities. It argues, therefore, that extant territorial models in Catalonia and Scotland are insufficient as accommodative arrangements to empower national minorities within the parameters of the plurinational state, and require reform.² This is further explored in the Conclusion, which identifies potential reforms to facilitate more stable but flexible approaches to the management of diversity within plurinational democracies.

To investigate and map the evolution of territorial politics, the research design follows a comparative case study approach (Yin 2009). Providing in-depth analysis of the Catalan and Scottish cases, it draws on extensive data from forty-five interviews with parliamentarians and representatives from the main political parties in Catalonia and Scotland, as well as from parliamentary debates, party documents and political speeches.³ Interviews were semi-structured and conducted, some in person, some online, between 2017 and 2020 at various locations in Catalonia, Scotland, Spain and the UK. Given the focus on both institutional dynamics and the main political actors, I considered it crucial to speak with representatives from the main political parties at both the state and substate levels to better capture the differing and at times competing perspectives of territorial debates in each case.

The empirical analysis is largely focused on the period 2010–2020 but is anchored within the wider development of the territorial models in Spain and the UK (see Chapter 2). The beginning of the second decade of the twenty-first century, nonetheless, represents an important departure point in the evolution of territorial politics in Catalonia and Scotland. On 28 June 2010, the Spanish Constitutional Court delivered its judgment on the 2006 reform of the Catalan Statute of Autonomy in which the Court invalidated several of the Statute's clauses. This marked a critical juncture in the development of territorial politics in Catalonia, widely seen as a decisive event in precipitating the secessionist turn in Catalan nationalism (Guibernau 2013). In Scotland, the elevation of the Scottish National Party (SNP) to government in 2007 was a pivotal moment in Scottish politics, but this became more pronounced in the aftermath of the SNP's landmark electoral victory in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election (Johns and Mitchell 2016). Having secured a majority, debate on an independence referendum became a matter of when not if. Between 2010 and 2020 territorial politics became an issue that occupied and at times dominated political agendas in Barcelona and Edinburgh, Madrid and London.

This book makes three principal contributions to the advancement of the study of comparative territorial politics. Firstly, the book ties into and advances debates on the management of diversity within plurinational states. In recent decades, increasing attention has been paid to how institutional developments, such as the implementation of territorial autonomy, can be used to accommodate self-determination claims, manage friction and ultimately maintain the territorial integrity of the plurinational state (Basta et al. 2015; Gagnon and Keating 2012; Malloy and Palermo 2015; Seymour and Gagnon 2012). As such, this book sheds light on how majority and minority groups within the Catalan/Spanish and Scottish/UK contexts understand and conceive institutional arrangements of autonomy, and examines their efficacy as frameworks of territorial accommodation. The analysis thus speaks to wider debates on territorial accommodation, specifically the theoretical development and practical implementation of multinational federalism as a normative and institutional framework to provide self-government for national minorities and facilitate equal recognition of all nations within a plurinational context. Further, by analysing the case studies through the lens of both multinational federalism and consociationalism, the findings illuminate the importance and necessity of more imaginative institutional thinking beyond self-rule (see also Anderson and Keil 2021a; Keil and Anderson 2018). To this end, this book offers a preliminary sketch of how the territorial models of Catalonia and Scotland could be reimagined to ensure the institutionalisation of more accommodative and inclusive territorial models.

Secondly, through focusing on the often overlooked and understudied phenomena of ‘state nationalism’, the book contributes to furthering our knowledge of how the behaviour of majority groups informs the evolution of territorial politics in plurinational settings. In recent years, there has been growing scholarly interest in the study of state nationalism, with scholars highlighting the need for more attention to be paid to this often ‘banal’ and ‘invisible’ nationalism (Cetrà and Brown Swan 2020: 2). Focusing on the main state actors in Spain and the UK, the analysis not only highlights the increasing visibility and assertiveness of state nationalism but argues that the rise of an insensitive and inflexible unionism in the UK and re-emergence of an increasingly intolerant Spanish nationalism pose as great a threat to the continuation of the Spanish and UK states as secessionism in Catalonia and Scotland. The following chapters, therefore, bring together the perspectives of state and minority nationalisms within one analysis, facilitating a deeper understanding of the complexity of constitutional debates that play out in plurinational contexts.

Finally, through the combination of a comparative case study and extensive data from interviews of political actors from across the political spectrum in Catalonia, Scotland, Spain and the UK, the book offers an important empirical advance on how these actors understand, experience and envision the evolution of territorial politics within their respective territories. Capturing a decade of political events in both cases, the critical analysis provides key insights into the implications and ramifications of dramatic moments such as the UK's withdrawal from the European Union (EU), the 2017 Catalan independence referendum and subsequent suspension of autonomy, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Crucially, understanding the experiences and perspectives of the main political actors is not merely an interesting academic endeavour, but has evident policy relevance for practitioners within and beyond the cases who are interested in the development and implementation of territorial frameworks to facilitate the coexistence of majority and minority groups within the same state.

The remainder of this introduction is divided into three sections. The next section considers the case selection, followed by a brief discussion of the framework for analysis undertaken in

Chapters 3 and

4. The chapter concludes with an outline of the structure of the book.

Why Catalonia and Scotland?

As case studies, Catalonia and Scotland have a number of similarities and differences that provide fertile ground to explore the development of territorial politics in plurinational states. First, Catalonia and Scotland are two of the best-known cases of minority nationalism in western Europe, with strong national identities rooted in and shaped by distinct histories and cultures. Secondly, political nationalist mobilisation in both cases has largely coalesced around support for territorial autonomy (in various guises) and today both Catalonia and Scotland are two of the most advanced autonomous substate entities, with substantial degrees of territorial autonomy. They form part of economically developed European liberal democracies in which asymmetric models of autonomy provide national minorities with self-government to manage their own affairs. Finally, Catalonia and Scotland are the two most prominent independence movements in western Europe. In recent years, both cases have witnessed a strengthening of secessionism during which time support for independence moved from the electoral margins to the political mainstream. Notably, neither Spain nor the UK have a constitutionalised right to self-determination.

The two cases also have a number of differences. Secessionism has a longer pedigree in the history of the Scottish nationalist movement than in Catalan nationalism, which only became predominantly secessionist from 2012 onwards. In addition, while nationalism in Scotland is most widely associated with the SNP and thus interpreted as largely left-wing, Catalan nationalism cuts across the left–right ideological spectrum, with parties on the radical left (Candidatura d’Unitat Popular – CUP/Popular Unity Candidacy), left (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya – ERC/Republican Left of Catalonia) and centre-right (Junts per Catalunya – Together for Catalonia, called ‘JxCat’ from here on) advancing a pro-independence agenda. The economic status of both cases also differs: Catalonia accounts for just over 16 per cent of the total Spanish population and a share of approximately 19 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), while Scotland amounts to circa 8 per cent of the total UK population with a GDP share of 7.4 per cent.

⁴

Beyond the Catalan and Scottish nationalist movements, there are also significant differences between Spain and the UK. The process of political decentralisation rolled out in Spain in the late 1970s applied to the entire Spanish territory and ultimately seventeen Autonomous Communities emerged. In the UK, devolution applied only to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. England, notwithstanding the fact it accounts for some 85 per cent of the UK population, has no separate parliament or government. The uncodified and flexible nature of the British constitution also stands in contrast with the codified and rigid Spanish Constitution. This is most evident in the distinct responses taken by the central governments towards the Catalan and Scottish secessionist challenges. The UK government facilitated the holding of a referendum on Scottish independence in 2014, while successive Spanish governments have refused to negotiate the organisation of a referendum on Catalan independence, referring to Article Two of the Constitution and its reference to ‘the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation, the common and indivisible country of all Spaniards’ as a bulwark to negotiations on secession. While, as mentioned earlier, neither Spain nor the UK have a constitutionalised right to self-determination, no constitutional barrier precludes the independence of Scotland. Finally, there are stark differences between the Spanish and UK cases in the acknowledgement of the plurinational status of the states. Political elites in the UK have long been comfortable with the idea of the UK as a plurinational union and descriptions of Scotland as a nation, whereas the plurinationalism of Spain is contested. Among parties on the left, such as the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE – Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) and Unidas Podemos (UP – United We Can), Spain's plurinationalism is largely accepted, but this is questioned and even rejected by political parties on the right: Ciudadanos (Citizens), Partido Popular (PP – Popular Party) and Vox.

Territorial politics in plurinational states

In recent decades, the study of territorial politics has become a veritable growth industry in political science (Börzel and Risse 2016; Detterbeck and Hepburn 2018; Lago

2021; Loughlin et al. 2013; Vidmar et al.

2022). Crossing disciplines such as economics, geography, history, law, political science, psychology and sociology, analysis of constitutional authority and territorial management has become a central plank of comparative politics research. This ‘renaissance’ has been shaped by processes of political decentralisation that have become commonplace in states all around the globe and the increasing relevance of supranational and subnational institutions (Hepburn and Detterbeck, 2018: 2). Indeed, as societies have become more diverse, states have faced the task of creating territorial strategies to manage cultural, ethnic, linguistic, national and religious diversity (Gagnon and Tremblay

2020).

Broadly, territorial politics refers to ‘such issues as the establishment and (re)organization of politico-administrative boundaries, the incorporation of distinct territories into a political system, the relative autonomy and capacity of sub-national territorial entities, and the articulation of their interests at the center’ (Broschek et al. 2018: 2). It thus involves various institutions at both state and substate levels as well as numerous actors, namely central and subnational governments. In plurinational states, that is, states characterised by the existence of more than one national group that defines itself as a nation or people, not all political processes are related to territorial dimensions, but as Lecours et al. (2021: 3) point out, ‘party competition, political representation, political participation, legislative processes, executive decisions, public policy-making, and intergovernmental relations are all instances of normal politics that are typically coloured by the deep diversity of multinational democracies’. The growing prevalence of plurinational states necessitates a deeper understanding of the experience of politics in these cases, paying particular attention to understanding the aspirations and concerns of minority and majority communities and how institutional arrangements are conceived and operated. Focusing on Catalonia and Scotland, the analysis in this book is a step in that direction.

A study of all aspects of territorial politics in Catalonia and Scotland would likely require several volumes. As such, and to ensure a controlled comparison between the two cases, the same five themes are examined in the main case study chapters: self-rule and recognition, shared rule, territorial politics and the judiciary, state nationalism and the independence movements.

Self-rule, shared rule and recognition are key components used in accommodation strategies in plurinational states (Swenden 2013). Self-rule refers to regional autonomy, that is, the extent to which a political entity rules itself. Typically, it ‘comes in three variants: legislative, i.e. the ability to making binding decisions; administrative, i.e. the power to implement decisions; and fiscal, i.e. the authority to raise and spend money freely’ (Mueller 2019: 163). Self-rule is often a key concern for national minorities that wish to secure decision-making autonomy over policy jurisdictions and provide a safeguard mechanism from political domination by the majority group (Requejo and Sanjaume-Calvet 2023). The institutionalisation of autonomy structures forms a central component of strategies of accommodation in plurinational states, but a dynamic rather than static approach is considered key to ensure long-term stability and effectiveness (Lecours 2021). Besides the practical significance of self-rule structures (i.e. being able to exercise decision-making authority in certain jurisdictions independent of the central government), autonomy also represents institutional recognition of the national minority. Recognition may also entail formal acknowledgement of the plurinational character of the state. This, as Swenden (2013: 71) contends, is a crucial component ‘when crafting successful territorial strategies for a plurinational state’. As noted in the previous section, both Catalonia and Scotland have a high degree of autonomy, but as will be discussed in Chapters 3 and 4, in neither case is the territorial model free from encroachment and imposition by central governments.

While self-rule is focused on regional autonomy, shared rule denotes ‘the principles, arrangements and institutions through which the communities of a multinational state exercise political power within central institutions’ (Lecours et al. 2021: 7–8). In other words, shared rule is about the extent to which subnational governments can participate in and influence the decision-making processes of the central government. In decentralised and federal systems, this is widely understood to take place via intergovernmental structures and second chambers, albeit the efficacy of such arrangements varies from state to state (Gamper 2018; Schnabel 2020). Shared rule is often of little concern to national minorities in the pursuit of territorial autonomy, but the effective management of jurisdictional interdependencies often necessitates the development and use of formal intergovernmental mechanisms. Beyond mechanical arrangements, a commitment to a political culture informed by principles such as cooperation, coordination, equality, partnership, trust and respect is a necessary condition to sustain self- and shared rule in plurinational states (Burgess 2012; Gagnon 2014). While this is perhaps more a normative ideal than empirical reality, it is important, as this book makes clear, to understand territorial politics as more than institutional arrangements. In the processes of decentralising power in Spain and the UK, shared rule was and remains a neglected dimension in the territorial models in Catalonia and Scotland. Infrastructure to facilitate intergovernmental interaction was developed but has been weakly operated and undermined by the absence of a more collaborative and sensitive political culture.

The third aspect of territorial politics analysed in this book examines the judicial dimension of territorial politics in Catalonia and Scotland. Recent scholarship