Plurinationalism and Its Effect on Independence Movements: a Case Study of Scotland and Catalonia
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Plurinationalism and its Effect on Independence Movements: A Case Study of Scotland and Catalonia Senior Honors Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Undergraduate Program in Politics Bernard Yack, Advisor In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Arts By Makayla Connor May 2021 Committee Members: Professor Bernard Yack Professor Chandler Rosenberger Professor Jeffrey Lenowitz 1 Abstract Independence movements have garnered international attention in the recent years as the world has seen an increased number of minority nations seeking independence from their sovereign states. However, most of those living within these minority nations hold national identity ties to their larger state as well. This was conceptualized with Michael Keating’s concept of plurinationalism in his book Plurinational Democracies, published in 2001, capturing the general sentiment of many political scientists and analysts at the time where he states people can inhabit more than one national identity. Thus, it was thought that independence movements would not be on the rise in the 21st century, moreover they would be increasing in number. However, as seen with nations such as Scotland and Catalonia, this was not the case. This paper provides a case study of these two minority nations and how they came to seek independence from the United Kingdom and Spain, respectively, despite plurinationalism still being a relevant concept to describe national identity trends within the nations today. It suggests that while national identity is integral to independence movements, other existing social, political, or economic factors may lead a nation to seek independence at an accelerated rate. 2 Acknowledgments I would like to thank the members of my thesis committee, Professor Bernard Yack, Professor Jeffrey Lenowitz, and Professor Chandler Rosenberger, for being part of this thesis. I would like to thank Professor Bernard Yack in particular for being my thesis advisor and being an immense help throughout this year process of writing a thesis. I am also thankful for Professor Lenowitz as director of the Honors program and holding bi-weekly thesis meeting with us students to check-in with us throughout this process and build a sense of community among other thesis writers. I would also like to thank everyone else who has aided me throughout this thesis process. Thank you to my family, especially my mother, grandparents, and brothers, who have always been my number one supporters throughout everything I have done. I am also very thankful to my friends who have always been there throughout the writing of this thesis. One last thank you to Aarin, who has been an immense help this part year and through this process. 3 Table of Contents Chapter One: Introduction 5 Chapter Two: History of Minority Nations and Plurinationalism 12 Chapter Three: Scotland, A Case Study 32 Chapter Four: Catalonia, A Case Study 59 Chapter Five: Conclusion 86 Works Cited 93 4 Chapter I. Introduction The past few decades have seen a worldwide uptick in the number of separatist movements of nations seeking independence from their sovereign states (Dayton 2015). Europe alone has over twenty independence movements, each varying in degree of how prominent and active they are. Nations looking to separate include those of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Eastern Europe to Scotland and Catalonia in Western Europe. All are seeking independence for different historical, economic, and humanitarian reasons. It can be argued that the two most active and prominent independence movements in Europe right now are those of both Scotland and Catalonia – with Scotland seeking secession from the United Kingdom and Catalonia from Spain. These two separatist movements have garnered worldwide attention, especially in the last few years after holding their own independence referendums, prompting them to be the most widely acknowledged independence movements at the moment in Europe. Europe is unique in the sense that its map and border lines has been ever changing while many nations remain stagnant. This means that while nations have remained in similar locations, continuing their culture and traditions, they have been bound legally to different states larger than them. This then causes rising tensions among nations within their larger states that they may feel they do not belong to. Instead of tensions growing among states that share borders or elsewhere, tensions have been growing within states among nations. What nations hope to gain varies case by case – some want more autonomy within their states, as in some form of devolution, while others seek self-determination and complete independence. There are around 100 groups in 29 different countries seeking some form of this (Campanella 2014). This thesis will focus on Scotland and Catalonia, providing a history of these two minority nations up until 5 modern times, showcasing what they want to achieve from their individual independence movements and why. Sentiments toward national identity and garnering nationalist ideas among these nations have been particularly important in furthering promises of independence and support of such. Many nations are trying to sustain a strong sense of national identity, one that is inclusive to prompt more to identify with the nation, thus pushing them in the direction of wanting them to have sovereignty over their people. The past few decades have seen more calls for independence with a tying in of a civic nationalism to further this agenda. This is of particular interest because in the early 2000s, a political scientist named Michael Keating coined this term “plurinationalism.” Keating stated that “under plurinationalism, more than one national identity can pertain to a single group or even an individual, opening up the possibility of multiple nationalities which in turn may be nested or may overlap in less tidy ways” (2001, 27). This essentially means that say, in the case of Scotland, people living there may identify as being both Scottish and British – their identities are nested and overlap. Because of this concept of plurinationalism, Keating suspects that these nations essentially will only seek devolution or economic independence in the future, which was a popular sentiment at the time of many political scientists and analysts. This made sense in the early 2000s based on what the world order and context looked like, but that is no longer the case. For example, he provides figures that show “a widespread liking for independence as an idea, but a willingness to recognize realities and settle for less” among Scots in the 90s. Keating also found that only “34% of Catalans answer[ed] yes to a question about whether they were in favor of Catalonia being independent” (2001, 75). This exemplifies his case and how it was relevant 6 for his studies in the 90s and the early 2000s. However, what this paper aims to find out is why things did not happen this way. As will be seen further in the paper, Keating’s concept of plurinationalism is still applicable. In places such as Scotland and Catalonia, many in these nations still identify to varying degrees with the larger state. While there are still a portion that may identify as solely Scottish or solely Catalan, many still hold ties to identifying as British and Spanish in addition to the minority national identity. However, it will be made clear that devolution efforts and economic autonomy are not enough for these nations as they previously may have been. They are seeking independence to be their own sovereign states, nothing less. This is made particularly clear among the independence movements in Scotland and Catalonia. Scotland, as a nation, has had a fluctuating relationship to its larger state, the United Kingdom. In May 1707, Scotland and England signed the Act of the Union that lead to the creation of the United Kingdom where the two nations would be ruled together as one. Essentially what this did was merge the Scottish Kingdom into Great Britain, dissolving the Scottish Parliament and transferring all legislative power to London. There have been unsuccessful secessionist movements by Scotland since this union in 1707 including the Jacobite Rebellions which met its end at the Battle of Culloden in 1745 with over 2,000 Scottish Highlanders dead. This was the end of the clan system in Scotland with the British banning the tartan and kilt as well. However, Scottish nationalism has always remained to be quite strong in the nation with Scots consistently feeling more Scottish than English throughout their history. In 1934, the Scottish National Party (SNP) was formed to promote a more Scotland- focused politics within Parliament, but it did not become popular until the 1950s and 1960s. It had great success in 1974, winning more than 30% of the popular vote in Scotland. In 1997, a 7 referendum was passed that would grant Scotland its own parliament which gave them even more power and influence in the nation. This Scottish devolution effort was seen as a major step in the right direction for many Scottish nationalists. As the Scottish National Party, the party promoted views of Scottish nationalism and had a long history of toying with the idea of an independent Scotland. In 2007, the party garnered more seats in parliament than the opposing Labour Party which allowed for Alex Salmond, the SNP leader, to be elected as the first prime minister of Scotland. An agreement was made between Salmond and the then UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, to hold an independence referendum on whether Scotland should be an independent country in 2014 after the party gained an absolute majority in Scottish Parliament in 2011. However, this referendum failed with 55% voting ‘no’ and 45% voting ‘yes’ after Cameron and other executives dictated that they would give more powers to Scotland if the referendum failed.