Rational Calculation or Emotional Thrust? Scotland, Catalonia and the Debates over Independence

In the literature on stateless nations, Scotland and Catalonia are often compared as two similar cases. Despite not denying the many commonalities between them, this paper aims to show that the role of emotions has been very different in the two regions. It does so by looking at the discourse of Scotland’s and Catalonia’s most important separatist parties – the Scottish National Party and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya – with special reference to the current debates about the holding of a referendum on independence. While in Scotland discussions have mainly focused on rational examinations of the future prospects of the Scottish economy, in Catalonia the lack of recognition of the Catalan nation has charged political arguments with a much stronger emotional content. The paper further argues that the main reason for this difference lies in the dissimilar constitutional and historical relationship of the two regions with the respective parent states.