nationalist coalition party CiU (Convergència i Unió) and separatist ERC (Esquerra Republicana announced that they would arrange a referendum on independence in 2014. de Catalunya) While known as the Catalan independence referendum, it was rebranded the “citizen participation process on the political future of the Constitutional Court of Spain Catalonia” after suspended the original vote. The ballot gave two Catalonia to become questions: “Do you want a and if the answer is in the affirmative, this State to be State? (yes/no)” “Do you want The estimated turnout was around 40 percent, and the results were independent? (yes/no)”. overwhelmingly pro-independence with 80.8% of votes for Yes-Yes, 10.1% Yes-No, and 4.5% No. President Artur Mas announced in January 2015 that his intention was for 2015 election vote to be turned into an alternative vote on the independence of Catalonia given the inability of Catalonia to hold a legal referendum on the issue. June 2015 marked the dissolution of the CiU coalition due to fragmentation in separatist ideology. For the Catalan parliamentary election of 2015, five parties ran together—including the CDC—under an ideology of Catalan independence in a coalition called while the UDC ran independently. won the Junts pel Sí, Junts pel Sí majority of parliamentary seats with 62 seats and 39.6% majority of the votes. III. Theoretical Framework: The Political Economy of Secession This study adopts a theoretical framework based on literature on the political economy of secession to examine the ongoing separatist movement of the autonomous region of Catalonia of Spain. According to this theory, regions operate based on a wealth maximization calculation; they secede, merge, or maintain the status quo based on the existence, or perceived existence, of a disparity between their current economic performance and optimal economic performance. Separatism becomes preferred when there is centralized economic policy making, but there are
nationalist coalition party CiU (Convergència i Unió) and separatist ERC (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya) announced that they would arrange a referendum on independence in 2014. While known as the Catalan independence referendum, it was rebranded the “citizen participation process on the political future of Catalonia” after the Constitutional Court of Spain suspended the original vote. The ballot gave two questions: “Do you want Catalonia to become a State? (yes/no)” and if the answer is in the affirmative, “Do you want this State to be independent? (yes/no)”. The estimated turnout was around 40 percent, and the results were overwhelmingly pro-independence with 80.8% of votes for Yes-Yes, 10.1% Yes-No, and 4.5% No. President Artur Mas announced in January 2015 that his intention was for 2015 election vote to be turned into an alternative vote on the independence of Catalonia given the inability of Catalonia to hold a legal referendum on the issue. June 2015 marked the dissolution of the CiU coalition due to fragmentation in separatist ideology. For the Catalan parliamentary election of 2015, five parties ran together—including the CDC—under an ideology of Catalan independence in a coalition called Junts pel Sí, while the UDC ran independently. Junts pel Sí won the majority of parliamentary seats with 62 seats and 39.6% majority of the votes. III. Theoretical Framework: The Political Economy of Secession This study adopts a theoretical framework based on literature on the political economy of secession to examine the ongoing separatist movement of the autonomous region of Catalonia of Spain. According to this theory, regions operate based on a wealth maximization calculation; they secede, merge, or maintain the status quo based on the existence, or perceived existence, of a disparity between their current economic performance and optimal economic performance. Separatism becomes preferred when there is centralized economic policy making, but there are