http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/1784 Fri, 24 May 2013 00:27:46 GMT 2013-05-24T00:27:46Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/bitstream/id/34826/ http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/1784 http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/211447 Recognition and political accommodation: from regionalism to secessionism. The Catalan case Requejo, Ferran, 1951-; Sanjaume Calvet, Marc Having lived through a bloody civil war in the 1930s followed by four decades of General Franco’s dictatorship, the Spanish state carried out a transition to a democratic system at the end of the 1970s. The 1978 Constitution was the legal outcome of this transition process. Among other things, it established a territorial model – the so-called “Estado de las Autonomías” (State of Autonomous Communities) – which was designed to satisfy the historical demands for recognition and self-government of, above all, the citizens and institutions of Catalonia and the Basque Country . In recent years support for independence has increased in Catalonia. Different indicators show that pro-independence demands are endorsed by a majority of its citizens, as well as by most of the political parties and organizations that represent its civil society. This is a new phenomenon. Those in favour of independence had been in the minority throughout the 20th century. Nowadays, however, demands of a pro-autonomy and pro-federalist nature, which until recently had been dominant, have gradually lost public support in favour of demands for self-determination and secession. This paper analyses the massive increase in support for secession in Catalonia during the early years of the 21st century. After describing the different theories of secession in plurinational liberal democracies (section 1), we analyse Catalonia’s political evolution over the past decade focusing on the shortcomings with regard to constitutional recognition and accommodation displayed by the Spanish political system. The latter have been exacerbated by the reform process of Catalonia’s Statute of Autonomy (2006) and the subsequent judgement of Spain’s Constitutional Court regarding the aforementioned Statute (2010) (section 2). Finally, we present our conclusions by linking the Catalan case with theories of secession applied to plurinational contexts Wed, 01 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/211447 2013-05-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/179612 Educational policy in Spain - a federal illusion? Holesch, Adam, 1977- Education and health policy are two of the public policies, which in Spain have been assigned to the Autonomous Communities (AC). This transfer of powers could be considered a proof for the strong “self-rule” of the AC, which in turn shows that Spain could be classified as a federal state. In the following analysis the authors in some parts disagree with that conclusion, showing that considering the education area Spain is “heavy at the top”. Due to the state’s exclusive power to regulate the basic conditions guaranteeing the equality of all Spanish citizens, the important and final decisions are taken at the center through the framework legislation. The AC play a minor role in the legislation process, they have to adopt the center decisions. De-centralization and extension of the framework legislation are highly connected: The central state reacted with strong framework legislation to the stages of the educational decentralization process. In addition, the concentration of important framing powers within the central state does not make educational reforms more infrequent. However, such reforms are the results of a competition between the parties, and not between the AC or between the AC and the central state Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/179612 2012-02-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/172951 Capital cities of federations. On the way to analysing the normative base of their asymmetrical status Nagel, Klaus-Jürgen Federal Capitals often have special statutes. Compared with member states, they often enjoy a lower degree of self-government and a lesser share in the governing of the federation. Why do actors choose such devices, and how can they be justified in a liberal democracy? Surprisingly, the burgeoning literature on asymmetric federalism (to which our research group has contributed significantly) has overlooked this important feature of a de iure asymmetry, perhaps because political theory up to now has concentrated on cases of multicultural and plurinational federations. However, comparative literature is also rare. This paper is the first step to filling in this gap by comparing some federal capitals. The Federal District model (Washington) is compared to capitals organized as member-states (Berlin and Brussels), and capitals that are cities belonging to a single member state (Ottawa in Ontario). The different features of de iure asymmetry will thereby be highlighted. Some light will be shed on the possible motives, reasons and justifications for the choice of each respective status. The paper opens the door to further research on such status questions by analysing public and parliamentary debates, for example. It paves the way for more thorough research. Sicne the author has been awarded a grant by the Institut d’Estudis Autonòmics, this research will be carried out soon. Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/172951 2011-12-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/152104 When federalism is not enough? Paths to cooperation in Federal democracies Ferreira do Vale, Helder This paper explores an overlooked issue in the literature on federations and federalism: the relationship between federalism and democracy. Starting from the assumption that federalism per se is not enough to guarantee cooperative intergovernmental dynamics between different levels of governments, this article analyzes how democracy reinforces cooperative intergovernmental relations under a federal design. Drawing from empirical evidence of federations in the making – Brazil, India, Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa and Spain – this article shows that in countries where the federal design was built under democratization, namely Brazil, Spain and South Africa, intergovernmental dynamics evolved under an increasingly cooperative mode of interaction. Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/152104 2011-06-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/88236 Pluralismo religioso, multiculturalidad y democracias liberales Requejo Coll, Ferran Este WP analiza la regulación del pluralismo religioso en las democracias liberales como uno de los aspectos mas destacados de la creciente multiculturalidad de las democracias actuales. Tras situar el liberalismo político como fenómeno surgido de las guerras de religión europeas de los siglos XVI y XVII (sección 1), se establecen ocho elementos analíticos para el estudio de los fenómenos multiculturales (sección 2) y tres modelos de "integración" política en las democracias de raíz liberal (sección 3). Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/88236 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/46795 Theorizing institutional changes: understanding decentralization and federalization in Brazil, Spain and South Africa Ferreira do Vale, Helder In light of the existing theories about institutional change, this paper seeks to advance a common framework to understand the unfolding of decentralization and federalization in three countries: Brazil, Spain, and South Africa. Although in different continents, these three countries witnessed processes after their respective transitions to democracy that transferred administrative and fiscal authority to their regions (decentralization) and vertically distributed political and institutional capacity (federalization). This paper attempts to explain how institutional changes prompted a shift of power and authority towards regional governments by looking at internal sources of change within the intergovernmental arena in the three countries. This analysis is organized around two propositions: that once countries transit to democracy under all-encompassing constitutions there are high incentives for institutional change, and that under a bargained intergovernmental interaction among political actors subnational political elites are able to advance their interests incrementally. In short, through a common framework this paper will explain the evolving dynamics of intergovernmental dynamics in three countries. Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/46795 2010-03-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/43036 Secession and liberal democracy. The case of the Basque country Requejo Coll, Ferran; Sanjaume Calvet, Marc The academic debate about the secession of a territory which is part of a liberal democracy state displays an initial contrast. On the one hand, practical secessionist movements usually legitimize their position using nationalist arguments linked to the principle of national self- determination. On the other hand, we find in academia few defenders of a normative principle of national self-determination. Philosophers, political scientists and jurists usually defend the status quo. And even when they do not defend it, most of them tend to leave the question of that question and secession unresolved or confused. Regarding this issue, liberal-democratic theories show a tendency to be “conservative” in relation to the political borders, regardless the historical and empirical processes of creation of current States. Probably, this feature is not far away to the fact that, since its beginning, political liberalism has not been a theory of the nation, but a theory of the state. Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/43036 2009-12-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/42922 The Nationalism of stateless nations and Europe. The Catalan case Nagel, Klaus-Jürgen This paper analyzes how the ideas and concepts of Europe have developed in Catalonia, under the conditions of a decentralizing “nation-state” (Spain) on one hand, and the European integration process on the other. It analyzes the programmes, manifestations of political leaders, and political actions of the Catalan political parties, specially the nationalists, from the setting up of the Spanish state of autonomies (1977-1982) until today. The paper tries to show how, in multilevel governance, holistic and enthusiastic visions of an economically and political integrating Europe as a “natural ally” of a Catalan nationalism were partially replaced by more pragmatic and even more critical assessments. Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/42922 2009-12-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/42108 Three theories of liberalism for the three theories of federalism. A Hegelian turn Requejo Coll, Ferran This paper links different political liberal theories, considered from the perspective of their moral ontology, with federal democracies. After giving a brief description of these theories, I discuss their relationship with the theoretical and institutional models of federalism. As methodological tools, the paper introduces some Hegel’s political concepts and deals with their potential application to the analysis of federalism, taken into account the case of minorities in multinational democracies. I postulate the need for a moral and institutional refinement of liberal-democratic patterns that is better able to accommodate national pluralism than has so far been achieved by traditional constitutionalism. Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/42108 2009-11-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/42107 Revealing the dark side of traditional democracies in plurinational societies. The case of Catalonia and the Spanish “Estado de las Autonomías” Requejo Coll, Ferran In this article, I firstly offer a synthesis of a brief set of analytical elements of the theory of democracy and federalism established in the recent debate which identify a number of flaws in the normative and institutional bases of plurinational democracies. It is necessary to overcome these flaws in order to achieve a true political and constitutional recognition and accommodation of the national pluralism of this kind of liberal democracies (section 1). Secondly, we will focus on the Spanish case of the “Estado de las Autonomías” taking into account the recent reform of the Catalan constitutional law (Estatut d’autonomia 2006) (section 2). A final section makes a number of concluding remarks relating the previously highlighted elements of the theory of democracy and federalism with the analysis of the Catalan case (section 3). Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/42107 2009-11-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/4049 Intertwined cultural demands of immigrants and minority nations Zapata-Barrero, Ricard Since at least the last two decades of the 20th century, the normative debate on multiculturalism has been one-dimensional. It has deployed arguments related to cultural demands either linked to feminism and sub-cultural identities, immigration or national minorities. Little attention has been given to the relations between these dimensions, and how they effect each other in putting forward demands to the nation-state. The purpose of this article is to analyse the interaction between cultural demands of immigrants and minority nations. The basic objective of this paper is to give an overview of different reflections coming from three basic contributors: J. Carens, W. Kymlicka and R. Bauböck. Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/4049 2007-03-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/4048 Federalism and democracy. The case of minority nations: a federalist deficit Requejo Coll, Ferran In this chapter, after pointing out the different logics that lie behind the familiar ideas of democracy and federalism, I have dealt with the case of plurinational federal democracies. Having put forward a double criterion of an empirical nature with which to differentiate between the existence of minority nations within plurinational democracies (section 2), I suggest three theoretical criteria for the political accommodation of these democracies. In the following section, I show the agonistic nature of the normative discussion of the political accommodation of this kind of democracies, which bring monist and pluralist versions of the demos of the polity into conflict (section 3.1), as well as a number of conclusions which are the result of a comparative study of 19 federal and regional democracies using four analytical axes: the uninational/plurinational axis; the unitarianism-federalism axis; the centralisation-decentralisation axis; and the symmetry-asymmetry axis (section 3.2). This analysis reveals shortcomings in the constitutional recognition of national pluralism in federal and regional cases with a large number of federated units/regions with political autonomy; a lower degree of constitutional federalism and a greater asymmetry in the federated entities or regions of plurinational democracies. It also reveals difficulties to establish clear formulas in these democracies in order to encourage a “federalism of trust” based on the participation and protection of national minorities in the shared government of plurinational federations/regional states. Actually, there is a federal deficit in this kind polities according to normative liberal-democratic patterns and to what comparative analysis show. Finally, this chapter advocates the need for a greater normative and institutional refinement in plurinational federal democracies. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to introduce a deeper form of “ethical” pluralism -which displays normative agonistic trends, as well as a more “confederal/asymmetrical” perspective, congruent with the national pluralism of these kind of polities. Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/4048 2007-03-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/1785 Cosmopolitan justice and minority rights: the case of minority nations (or Kant again, but different) Requejo Coll, Ferran Global Justice has usually been understood to mean institutional and social justice (political and redistributive issues on a global scale). In contrast, issues involving different national and cultural identities, are usually marginal in reflections on global justice. This occurs despite the fact that human rights include political social and cultural rights. This paper links a conception of global justice, moral cosmopolitanism, with plurinational democracies. After giving a brief description of moral cosmopolitanism I go on to analyse notions of cosmopolitanism and patriotism in Kant's work and the political significance that the notion of "unsocial sociability" and the "Ideas of Pure Reason" of Kant's first Critique have for cosmopolitanism. Finally, I analyse the relationship between cosmopolitanism and minority nations based on the preceding sections. I postulate the need for a moral and institutional refinement of democracies and international society that is better able to accommodate national pluralism than has so far been achieved by traditional liberal constitutionalism and cosmopolitanism http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/1785