Secession, self-determination and struggles for recognition in Catalonia in the 21st century

Abstract

Self-determination within the European Union is a key and essential element for understanding its actuality as crucial for any future formulas for its development. In this brief work we want to approach the phenomenon of self-determination from the premises that arise from the Hegelian doctrine of the Anerkennung and the theory of the struggles for recognition by Axel Honneth. The actuality’s point of view over the facts obtained by this way will allow us to understand holistically a phenomenon whose grammar sets its principles in moral considerations, but which must be solved –if we admit that democracy is the substance of such solutions– thanks to legal, political and institutional processes. The strategies proposed by Allen Buchanan, Paul Williams and Christopher Borgen will be analysed from the perspective of recognition and applied to the actuality of Catalonia and its relations with Spain and the EU.

Keywords: secession, self-determination, Anerkennung, European Union, Catalonia.