JUDICIAL DECISIONS, BACKLASH AND SECESSIONISM: THE SPANISH CONSTITUTIONAL COURT AND CATALONIA

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Casas, Agustin; Curci, Federico; De Moragas, Antoni-Italo
• 署名单位: CUNEF Universidad
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1093/ej/ueae041
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 3202-3231
• 关键词: SUPREME-COURT; social identity; support; intervention; nation

摘要

We exploit a unique quasi-experiment to study the effects of judicial decisions on sensitive issues on political attitudes. In 2010, the Spanish Constitutional Court partially overruled the new Catalan Constitution-the Estatut-that granted further decentralisation. Our identification strategy relies on the fact that this ruling occurred amid a public opinion survey. We find that the ruling increased support for independence by 5 percentage points. We interpret this result as evidence of judicial backlash on political attitudes: a judicial decision that limited further autonomy triggered a shift in attitudes towards even more autonomy. Moreover, the ruling decreased trust in the courts and satisfaction with democracy. This backlash of political attitudes extends to other spheres: Catalans increased their national identification with their region and the support for pro-decentralisation parties. Finally, we show that the ruling increased polarisation around the partisan and identity cleavages.