Guillem Rico

Bringing Secessionism into the Mainstream: The 2012 Regional Election in Catalonia

Called two years ahead of schedule, the 2012 Catalan election was held in a context of economic recession, controversial austerity measures, growing political disaffection, and increasing popular support for Catalonias independence. The election was mainly marked by the decision of the incumbent moderate nationalists to advocate for the regions secession from Spain, in the wake of a massive rally in support of the independence of Catalonia. In this article we report on the context, the campaign, and the results of the election, and assess the likely reasons why an unexpectedly high number of voters chose to defect from the incumbent. Additionally, we use survey data to investigate the rapid conversion of a substantial portion of the Catalan public to favour independence, formerly regarded as a rather extreme position, after the 2010 Constitutional Courts controversial decision to curtail the regions reformed Statute of Autonomy.

The 2010 Regional Election in Catalonia: A Multilevel Account in an Age of Economic Crisis

This paper examines the context, actors, campaign, and results of the Catalan election of 2010, which took place in a context of economic recession and growing political discontent. I argue that certain circumstances concurred in this particular contest to enhance the influence of factors pertaining to the first-order (i.e. national) arena as compared with the influence of second-order (i.e. region specific) factors. As a result, regional incumbent support was found to be largely driven by evaluations of national incumbent performance, which worked against the tripartite coalition government.

Economic Crisis, Populist Attitudes, and the Birth of Podemos in Spain

The chapter analyses the consequences of the economic recession in Spain for the development of populist attitudes and the appearance of a left-wing populist party, Podemos. In the first section, we contextualise the Spanish case and we show that Podemos’ voters are the ones that hold highest levels of populist attitudes. In the second section, we analyse economic and political correlates of populist attitudes among the citizenry. We show that income, sociotropic evaluations of the national economy, political sophistication, being left-wing oriented, and not being close to the incumbent are positively related to populist attitudes. In the last section, we use populist attitudes to explain vote choice and show that Podemos was the party most affected by these attitudes in the 2015 election.

Economic crisis and national attitudes: experimental evidence from Spain

ABSTRACT How do national economic crises affect citizens’ feelings of attachment to the nation? Does a country’s loss of economic status trigger expressions of nationalism as is often assumed? Building on insights from social identity theory, we hypothesize that crises of the national economy do not lead to a generalized increase of nationalism but that the effect is conditioned by individuals’ perceived socio-economic status. In addition, we explore whether framing national economic difficulties as a result of policies imposed at the level of European institutions enhances the conditional effect of the crisis on nationalism. Drawing on data from a survey experiment in Spain, we find that when exposed to messages about the crisis of the national economy, national pride is strengthened among lower-class individuals but weakened among the upper class and that the effects on nationalism are important only if the loss of national economic status is framed in terms of European responsibility.