Between a Principled and a Consequentialist Logic: Theory and Practice of Secession in Catalonia and Scotland (original) (raw)

Nations and Nationalism, 2018

Abstract

This paper inquires into whether the three types of arguments usually formulated in the normative literature on the legitimacy of secession—i.e. communitarian, choice and remedial arguments—are articulated (or not) by separatist parties in Catalonia and Scotland. It concludes that these actors do use such arguments, but they tend to merge them in different combinations making a pluralist case for independence rather than developing monist reasoning as most political philosophers do. Furthermore, it finds a fourth type of argument which is under-theorised in the relevant literature. This is an instrumental argument whereby independence is depicted not as an end in itself, but as a means to achieve better welfare and governance for the national population. It further proposes a fourfold theoretical scheme that links communitarian and choice arguments to a principled logic based on the belief in the existence of an absolute right to selfdetermination and remedial and instrumental arguments to a consequentialist logic that legitimates secession on the condition that it serves the achievement of specific ends.

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