Separatism and Identity: A comparative analysis of the Basque and Catalan cases

Stephen Ansolabehere () and M. Socorro Puy
Additional contact information
Stephen Ansolabehere: Department of Government, Harvard University

No 2020-03, Working Papers from Universidad de Málaga, Department of Economic Theory, Málaga Economic Theory Research Center

Abstract: Regionally-based nationalist parties are a normal part of political processes but at times, the separatist goal surfaces in an overt effort to secede. We study what issues are activated in voters' preferences when responding to separatist efforts. We examine this question through a careful, analytical comparison of the Catalan and Basque regions of Spain during the period 1998-2016. We exploit the fact that these two regions are comparable in their histories and political systems, yet the Basques pushed to leave Spain in the early 2000s and the Catalans pursued independence about fiteen years later. We find that secessionist efforts by regionally-based parties have been reflected as a rise in language-based identity politics. In this regard, we find strong evidence supporting that secession and separatism is rooted in identity politics, rather than economic discontent or political ideologies.

Keywords: Identity; spatial voting; secession; language politics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2020-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://theeconomics.uma.es/malagawpseries/Papers/METCwp2020-3.pdf First version, 2020 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mal:wpaper:2020-3

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Universidad de Málaga, Department of Economic Theory, Málaga Economic Theory Research Center Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ascension Andina ().