Who owns “democracy”? The role of populism in the discursive struggle over the signifier “democracy” in Catalonia and Spain
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12877178 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Juan Alberto Ruiz Casado (0000-0002-7809-8568, National Cheng Kung University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 585-601 |
| Publication date | 2022-06-16 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Critical Discourse Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1740-5904 • E-ISSN: 1740-5912 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17405904.2022.2088584 |
| OpenAlex | W4282961846 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 41 |
After the notoriety of the Catalan independence bid in the 2010s, the already extensive literature on Catalan nationalism has grown even further to offer multifarious explanations for the conflict over independence both within Catalonia and between Catalonia and Spain. This article draws on recent approaches incorporating populism – in its articulation with nationalism – as an essential theoretical and empirical tool to better describe the emergence and dynamics of the Catalan independence movement. The study argues that the prevailing populist construction of a sovereign ‘people’ in Catalonia led to a discursive struggle over the floating signifier ‘democracy’ between two majority blocs: the one governing Catalonia vis-à-vis the one governing Spain. This is followed by a discourse-theoretical analysis of each bloc’s attempts to endow the floating signifier ‘democracy’ with distinctive meanings. Each bloc, acting in line with their political interests and against the will of relevant minorities within their sovereign demarcations, discursively articulated alternative interpretations of what democracy ‘truly’ is, thus claiming democratic legitimacy for themselves while demonizing the opponent as ‘anti-democratic’. As a result, the insoluble conflict in Catalonia can largely be explained as a struggle with important ethico-political implications between two irreconcilable understandings of ‘democracy’: constitutional democracy versus majoritarian democracy
Articulation (sociology · Authoritarianism · Catalan · Democracy · democratic deficit · Humanities · Independence (probability theory · Legitimacy · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Popular sovereignty · Populism · Sociology · Sovereignty · European Union Policy and Governance · Law · Philosophy · Political Systems and Governance · Populism, Right-Wing Movements
The (changing) concept of democracy in (transforming) European populist radical right discourses
When “the people” of populism is constructed by the relatively privileged
The five spatial political logics of populism
Selection bias and ideological slant in DA approaches to populism
Changing Nationalist Styles in Galicia
Cultivating critical language awareness
The rhetoric of democracy in United States Senate campaign debates
Emancipatory Urban Citizenship Regimes in Postpandemic Catalonia, Scotland, and Wales
Paradoxes of Populism
Populism in Europe and the Americas
Populist Democracy vs Party Democracy
Distinctions and Articulations
Secession and distributive justice
La teoría (de la secesión) de la minoría permanente a la luz de la democracia deliberativa
National Deadlock. Hot Nationalism, Dual Identities and Catalan Independence (2008–2019)
The Populism/Anti-Populism Divide in Western Europe
Conflict in Catalonia
Privileged Rebels
A bourgeois story? The class basis of Catalan independentism
Do Catalans have ‘the right to decide’? Secession, legitimacy and democracy in twenty-first century Europe
Self-determination in the Twenty-First Century
Secessionism in Catalonia
The tensions of populism in power
Go get ’em! Elites, depoliticization and resistance in the Catalan independence bid
Spain steals from us!’ The ‘populist drift’ of Catalan regionalism
Just a Matter of Identity? Support for Independence in Catalonia
Political Power and Civil Counterpower
Against the Thesis of the “Civic Nation”
The 2015 Catalan Election
Constitutional Democracy
The Legitimacy of the People
In pursuit of independence
Between a principled and a consequentialist logic
Catalonia
Majoritarian democracy and globalization versus ethnic diversity
The Cross-Sectional Determinants of Secessionism in Advanced Democracies
Political Theory of Populism
Articulations of populism and nationalism
Democracies and the Populist Challenge
Counter-Majoritarian Democracy
The Rise of Illiberal Democracy
Ambivalences of populism
Reducing the gap between leaders and voters? Elite polarization, outbidding competition, and the rise of secessionism in Catalonia
| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |