Does international recognition matter? Support for unilateral secession in Catalonia and Scotland
Date
19/08/2019Keywords
Metadata
Show full item recordAltmetrics Handle Statistics
Altmetrics DOI Statistics
Abstract
How much do the prospects of international recognition of a possible new state affect the domestic support for secession? To answer this research question, we adopted a most similar systems design and conducted a Web-based survey experiment in Catalonia and Scotland. Respondents were presented with plausible scenarios regarding the international recognition of a hypothetical independent state by other countries and were subsequently asked whether they would support a unilateral declaration of independence. The results show that the prospects of international recognition as a sovereign and independent state influence the degree of support for a unilateral declaration of independence in both cases. This effect was moderated by the intensity of nationalist sentiment and the motivations for independence. Respondents with more outspoken nationalist sentiments were only marginally influenced by these scenarios or treatments. Moreover, participants whose preferences towards secession were driven by ethno-political motivations were less influenced by international factors than those who wanted an independent state for economic or political reasons.
Citation
Muro , D , Vidal , G & Vlaskamp , M C 2019 , ' Does international recognition matter? Support for unilateral secession in Catalonia and Scotland ' , Nations and Nationalism , vol. Early View . https://doi.org/10.1111/nana.12557
Publication
Nations and Nationalism
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1354-5078Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © The author(s) 2019. Nations and Nationalism © ASEN/John Wiley & Sons Ltd 2019. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the author created accepted manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1111/nana.12557
Description
This work was supported by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation under Grant number Az.20.14.0.032.Collections
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.