Le nouveau statut d'autonomie de la Catalogne : acte II de l'État des Autonomies

Catalonia’s New Autonomy Plan: Act Two of the State of Autonomies On June 18,2006, the Catalan electorate ratified by referendum the new autonomy statute that now governs relations between the autonomous community of Catalonia and the rest of Spain. This new statute is of particular importance in that it announces a new era, Act Two of the State of Autonomies. Indeed, the scope of this reform not only covers Catalunya's relations with the rest of Spain, it also influences the relations each autonomous community has with the rest of the country and particularly the other statutory reforms underway, such as that for Andalusia. This analysis sets out to determine what Catalonia’s autonomous status reveals about this innovative form of territorial organization exemplified by a so-called “autonomic state” and in what way it particularly influences its evolution. The strategy that involves instrumentalizing a symbolic resource (“Catalan identity”) to legal (more self-government) as well as political ends (conquest and consolidation of local leadership) is actually highly successful; enough so to be picked up by other autonomous communities and be a core feature of Spain’s contemporary political formula.