IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/poango/v9y2021i4p412-425.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Asymmetrical Effect of Polarization on Support for Independence: The Case of Catalonia

Author

Listed:
  • Juan Rodríguez-Teruel

    (Department of Constitutional Law, Political and Administrative Sciences, University of Valencia, Spain)

  • Astrid Barrio

    (Department of Constitutional Law, Political and Administrative Sciences, University of Valencia, Spain)

Abstract

The article analyses the consequences of elite polarization at the mass level in the centre-periphery dimension. We analyse the rapid rise in support for independence in Catalonia, focusing on the role of party competition around the centre-periphery cleavage. We argue that mainstream actors’ adoption of centrifugal party strategies with respect to the national question produced a polarizing dynamic in the party system that eventually caused voters’ attitudes regarding the centre-periphery issue to harden. Indeed, we posit that this increase in mass polarization was a consequence of party agency that subsequently helped to drive attitudes regarding independence. To test this hypothesis, we measure centre-periphery polarization (as perceived by voters) by adopting two different perspectives—inter-party distances (horizontal polarization) and party-voter distances (vertical polarization)—and then run logistic regressions to explain support for independence. The findings show an asymmetrical effect on polarization. While the centrifugal strategy implemented by Catalan regionalist parties paved the way for a radicalization of voters on the Catalan nationalist side, among voters for non-regionalist parties, attitudes towards independence were initially less conditioned by this polarization. The results provide evidence of the political effects of elite polarization.

Suggested Citation

  • Juan Rodríguez-Teruel & Astrid Barrio, 2021. "The Asymmetrical Effect of Polarization on Support for Independence: The Case of Catalonia," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(4), pages 412-425.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v:9:y:2021:i:4:p:412-425
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4627
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. André Blais & Richard Nadeau, 1992. "To Be or Not to Be Sovereignist: Quebeckers' Perennial Dilemma," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 18(1), pages 89-103, March.
    2. Sarah L. de Lange, 2012. "New Alliances: Why Mainstream Parties Govern with Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 60(4), pages 899-918, December.
    3. Brais Álvarez Pereira & Martín Portos & John Vourdas, 2018. "Waving goodbye? The determinants of autonomism and secessionism in Western Europe," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(2), pages 197-211, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ferran Requejo & Marc Sanjaume-Calvet, 2021. "Explaining Secessionism: What Do We Really Know About It?," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(4), pages 371-375.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Klaus Desmet & Ignacio Ortuño-Ortín & Ömer Özak, 2022. "Is Secessionism Mostly About Income or Identity? A Global Analysis of 3,003 Subnational Regions," NBER Working Papers 30428, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Geloso, Vincent J. & Grier, Kevin B., 2022. "Love on the rocks: The causal effects of separatist governments in Quebec," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    3. Do Won Kim, 2020. "Populism Amidst Prosperity: Dimensionality, party competition and voter preference in the era of populism: The case of England, 2010-2017," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 160, European Institute, LSE.
    4. Vanschoonbeek, Jakob, 2020. "Regional (in)stability in Europe a quantitative model of state fragmentation," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 605-641.
    5. Xavier Cuadras Morató & Toni Rodon, 2017. "The Dog that Didn’t Bark: On the Effect of the Great Recession on the Surge of Secessionism," Working Papers 968, Barcelona School of Economics.
    6. Anwen Elias & Núria Franco-Guillén, 2021. "Justifying Secession in Catalonia: Resolving Grievances or a Means to a Better Future?," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(4), pages 453-464.
    7. Robert Young, 1994. "The political economy of secession: The case of Quebec," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 221-245, March.
    8. María José Hierro & Aina Gallego, 2018. "Identities in between," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 62(6), pages 1314-1339, July.
    9. Ferré, Montserrat & Manzano, Carolina, 2022. "The macroeconomic impact of radical right populist parties in government," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    10. Yulia A. Belous & Andrew S. Tarasov, 2020. "Factors Of Centrifugal Political Tendencies In Spain: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis," HSE Working papers WP BRP 36/IR/2020, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    11. Patrick James, 1999. "The Chain Store Paradox and Constitutional Politics in Canada," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 11(1), pages 5-36, January.
    12. Stephen Ansolabehere & M. Socorro Puy, 2020. "Separatism and Identity: A comparative analysis of the Basque and Catalan cases," Working Papers 2020-03, Universidad de Málaga, Department of Economic Theory, Málaga Economic Theory Research Center.
    13. Agneman, Gustav, 2022. "How economic expectations shape preferences for national independence: Evidence from Greenland," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    14. Andrea Junqueira & Thiago N. Silva & Guy D. Whitten, 2023. "What about us? Political competition, economic performance, immigration, and nativist appeals," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 104(1), pages 11-24, January.
    15. Jordi Muñoz, 2021. "The Catalan Syndrome? Revisiting the Relationship Between Income and Support for Independence in Catalonia," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(4), pages 376-385.
    16. Matteo Migheli, 2016. "Measuring Representativeness in Different Electoral Systems, Using Italian and Dutch Data," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 723-748, July.
    17. Ferran Requejo & Marc Sanjaume-Calvet, 2021. "Explaining Secessionism: What Do We Really Know About It?," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(4), pages 371-375.
    18. Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian & Zangl, Bernhard, 2020. "Zwischen Hoffen und Bangen: Zum Verhältnis von Autorität, Politisierung und Demokratisierung in internationalen Organisationen [Between hope and fear: On the relationship between authority, politic," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 27(1), pages 5-36.
    19. Giebler, Heiko & Werner, Annika, 2020. "Cure, Poison or Placebo? The Consequences of Populist and Radical Party Success for Representative Democracy," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 56(3), pages 293-306.
    20. Montserrat Ferre & Carolina Manzano, 2020. "Macroeconomic effects of populist radical right parties in a rational partisan model," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(4), pages 3211-3218.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v:9:y:2021:i:4:p:412-425. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.