Daniel Cetrà

University of Barcelona | UB · Ciència Política Dret Constitucional i Filosofia del Dret

This article examines why the UK Government accepted the 2014 Scottish independence referendum while the Spanish Government opposes a similar referendum in Catalonia. Adopting a most similar research design, we argue that the variation is best explained by perceived political opportunities by the two ruling parties. These are embedded in different...

Is liberalism really compatible with nationalism? Are there limits to linguistic nation-building policies? What arguments justify the imposition of national languages? This book addresses these questions by examining the linguistic disputes in Catalonia and Flanders, two major cases of sub-state nationalism. The book connects two strands of argumen...

This article examines the regulation of linguistic diversity in Spain from a combined empirical and normative perspective. Spain is a particularly interesting case due to the intersection of linguistic and national diversity and its peculiar combination of territoriality and personality. We first present a conceptual framework which draws on the pe...

How do states respond to minority nations’ demands? Are state nationalism and majority nationalism the same? This book brings together the leading lights in nationalism studies to turn their attention to the neglected role of the state in nationalist disputes. The aspirations of state and majority nationalists often conflict with the aspirations o...

Are secessionisms from and within the EU comparable? What motivates them and to what extent do they pose similar challenges to EU territorial governance? This article addresses these questions by comparing the framing of the British Leave campaign and the Catalan independence movement. Drawing on the FraTerr database and method, the analysis sugges...

Hi ha pocs fenòmens políticosocials més controvertits i en boca de tothom que el nacionalisme. Sovintegen les opinions taxatives sobre si es tracta d'una ideologia intolerant i excloent que amenaça els drets individuals i les democràcies liberals o si, per contra, es tracta d'una ideologia democratitzadora que atorga la sobirania al poble, el cohes...

Brexit and its implications pose the latest challenge to the Union as a political project and to unionism as the doctrine of state legitimacy. How did key unionist actors articulate the legitimizing foundations of the Union in the critical period 2016-20? And to what extent did they set out a renewed case for its continuation? Drawing on an extensi...

The linguistic conjunction regime in the Catalan education system has been subject to several controversies over the years and we can see one position in favour and another against the model. In this article we identify the main arguments in the public debate for and against the system and analyse its normative basis in accordance with contribution...

This article analyses the significance of polity-wide parties’ understanding of state and nation for their ability and willingness to accommodate territorial diversity. To illustrate this point, we first introduce a typology containing four ‘ideal-types’ of state nationalism: dominant, integrationist, composite, and plurinational. Subsequently, we...

While calls for self-determination and independence make headlines worldwide, an often more subtle state nationalism remains an endemic condition of the modern world. In the introductory article for this Special Issue, we define state and majority nationalism we identify three challenges in the study of these phenomena, we suggest that a focus on p...

This paper examines the way party elites in the UK and Spain discursively construct the nation and justify state integrity in the face of resurgent Catalan and Scottish demands for self-determination and independence. While in each case there is a plurality of conceptions of the state, in Spain the demos is predominantly defined as a single, indivi...

This article summarises contributions to an ASEN-Edinburgh (Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism, Edinburgh Branch) symposium held the day after the 2017 Catalan referendum on independence. Daniel Cetrà describes a referendum disputed between legal and democratic legitimacy and grounded on competing visions of nationhood. Elisenda...

This article examines the politics of language in plurinational states. First, I argue that the relationship between language and nationhood is politically constructed through two broad processes: state nation-building and 'peripheral' activism. Second, I present three broad strategies of territorial management to accommodate the normative and prac...

Scotland and Catalonia have long been seen as comparative cases: distinctive minority national identities with autonomist movements that have seen a measure of electoral or constitutional success. In 2014, both cases reached a critical juncture, with an official referendum in Scotland and a non-binding ‘participation process’ in Catalonia. Those ev...

Scotland and Catalonia have long been seen as comparative cases: Distinctive minority national identities with autonomist movements that have seen a measure of electoral or constitutional success. In 2014, both cases reached a critical juncture, with an official referendum in Scotland and a non-binding 'participation process' in Catalonia. Those ev...

This thesis addresses the following question: do proponents and opponents in the linguistic disputes in Catalonia and Flanders prioritise individual or group-oriented rights? The dispute in Catalonia is about the use of languages in the Catalan education system, while the dispute in Flanders is about the linguistic regime in certain municipalities...

The 2015 Catalan regional election, held on 27 September, was framed as a proxy for an independence referendum by the pro-independence parties. This was meant to bypass the PP-led central government's opposition to permit an official referendum. After an election campaign clearly dominated by the independence issue, the results delivered a majority...