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Is Catalan Separatism A Progressive Cause?, Edgar Illas

Dissidences

This paper argues that the Left has not developed a theory for singular events such as Catalan separatism. Instead of conceiving it as a mere nationalist construct and rejecting it on behalf of federalism or universalism, I propose to focus on the transformative energies of this political and cultural movement. After tracing the historical links between separatism and radical leftist politics, my paper aims to extract three lessons from the project to build a new Catalan state: first, the possibility of formulating a right to vote based on residence and not on citizenship; second, the project to devise a non-culturalist …