A comparative analysis of the difference in attitudes of Britain and Spain towards independence referendum

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국유럽학회
· 수록지 정보 : 유럽연구 / 39권 / 2호 / 1 ~ 28페이지
· 저자명 : Minchao Hua, 김현정, 두보

초록

In recent years, the referendum on independence has become an important political movement affecting some European countries, and has also received wide attention from academics. The attitude of the government is one of the important factors that plays a decisive role in whether the referendum can be realized and implemented. While, in Europe the British ruling government agreed to hold a referendum on independence in Scotland in 2014, the Spanish government resolutely opposed, holding a referendum in the break-away region. Although the two countries have many similarities, they also have different attitudes towards regional referendums. This paper studies the difference in attitudes of the two governments towards independence referendum using a literature review approach and comparative analysis. From the political and cultural point of view, the British political situation has been stable in recent times, and its local autonomy tradition has enabled it to accept the possibility of separation with a more open mind when facing regional independence. On the contrary, Spain's turmoil and dictatorship in recent times, coupled with the centralized political culture formed by the strong Catholic presence, make the country more cautious and conservative in its treatment of regional independence referendum. From the perspective of political party strategy, Scotland has a small probability of independence. The Conservative government agrees that the referendum is “low risk and high return”. While Catalonia has a high probability of independence, the People's Party government agrees that the referendum is undoubtedly self-defeating. Although regional independence has done great harm to both governments, from the perspective of party interests and economy, Scottish independence is not as destructive as Catalan independence. The different ways of dealing with local referendums in the two countries show that the ruling government's assessment of the risks and benefits of independent referendums is an important indicator of its attitude. Different scripts may appear in different countries because of the different attitudes of the ruling government and the cases of Scotland and Catalonia may not be universally applicable.

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