The Instrumental Case for Independence

What is it about?

This paper argues that, in a historical comparative perspective, two European separatist parties - the Scottish National Party and the New Flemish Alliance - have substantially innovated nationalist discourse by making an instrumental case for independence, based on a conception of external self-determination as a means to improve governance and economic performance, rather than as an end in itself, and on a gradualist strategy interpreting independence as a process rather than as an event.

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Why is it important?

It is often believed that separatism is on the rise in Western Europe. Yet, at a closer look, what we rather see is the electoral success of separatist parties, which doesn't necessarily coincide with support for independence. In order to explain this, we thus need to look at the parties' rhetorical strategies and this is precisely what the paper does.