Territorial Conflict in Spain: Preferences and Institutions, 2021

Territorial politics has remained an essential point of contention in Spain, with the accommodation of geographically concentrated minorities being one of the most unresolved challenges in this multinational state. The recent conflict in Catalonia, and the constitutional and democratic crisis resulting from it, illustrate the deficiencies of the institutional system that regulates the territorial distribution of power in Spain. Indeed, several issues, such as the recognition of national minorities or the fiscal treatment of regions, remain unresolved forty-five years after the inception of the Spanish autonomic system. To assess attitudes towards territorial issues among Spaniards, we conducted an online survey in Spain in June 2021 (drawing on a representative sample of the voting-age population) where we embedded a conjoint experiment.