The Catalan Process
Peter A.Kraus & Joan Vergés Gifra (eds.)
The Catalan Process. Sovereignty, Self-Determination and Democracy in the 21st Century.
Generalitat de Catalunya. Institut d’Estudis de l’Autogovern: 2017.
Recent developments in Europe suggest that the dynamic of globalization and transnational integration rather fuels than obstructs aspirations to alter political borders drawn in pre-democratic times. All evidence at hand at present indicates that self-determination will continue to be one of the most pressing issues on the world's political agenda. The demands for sovereignty articulated over the last ten years in Catalonia are an obvious manifestation of this trend. However, the Catalan "process" is a complex phenomenon. This book aims at helping the reader to grasp and interpret this complexity. It brings into focus those political events and constellations in Catalonia's recent history that are central for an appropriate understanding of the process. The book also shows that the process has a political relevance that goes way beyond the Spanish-Catalan context and relates to key issues concerning the interplay of democracy, sovereignty and statehood in the 21st century. The main rationale underlying the different views presented in this volume is precisely the conviction that what has been, and still is, going on in Catalonia opens up important insights when it comes to grasping some of the most salient challenges democratic governance faces in an age that – in Europe as in other parts of the world – combines identity politics and globalism in often surprising ways.