The province of Catalonia, which has long desired independence from Spain, has recently adopted a plan that would allow greater autonomy:
Voters in Catalonia, Spain's northeastern region, approved a sweeping overhaul of its constitutional relationship with the central government on Sunday, endorsing a plan to grant broad new powers of self-government. ...
The measure grants Catalonia more control over a variety of issues, including tax collection, immigration policy and judicial affairs. It acknowledges that Catalonia considers itself a nation, requires that residents learn the Catalan language and declares that the region's powers of self-government emanate from the people of Catalonia rather than from the Spanish Constitution.
Catallonia's plan will strike many as misguided; it conjures up the image of ethnic or linguistic fractionalization, with the possibility of violent conflict along the way.
But this reaction is potentially too strong, even if one takes as given that a country should always maintain its existing borders. Promotion of that goal might mean imposing less control rather than more.
Consider the individual pieces of Catalonia's request in comparison to the autonomy enjoyed by U.S. states under the federalist interpretation of the U.S. constitution. Under that interpretation, states have enormous leeway to set their own tax, judicial, immigration, and language policies, the same rights Catalonia is now demanding.
More broadly, it is plausible that granting greater autonomy in areas where centralized government is not strictly necessary (roughly, everything other than national defense) reduces the likelihood of breakup. The Canadian experience with Quebec is one good illustration.
Catalonia's desire to declare itself an independent nation is of course more problematic. But perhaps that desire would decline if the remaining aspects of autonomy were granted.
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