Catalonia – The Implications of Referendums

The recent sequence of events that have occurred in Catalonia are vital for students applying to Oxford and Cambridge to think about.

As an ongoing political event, it is relevant to think about the importance of these complicated developments through the prism of their subject choice.

After Catalonia has voted to leave Spain, there has been a reaction by the Spanish government to refuse this partition to happen. Spain’s chief prosecutor has called for charges including rebellion to be laid against Catalan leaders following the region’s declaration of independence. Students applying to study Law should consider the validity of these legal actions through considering previous cases and any precedence set. Under the Spanish legal system, the request will be considered by a judge. Furthermore, they should think about the social implications of what this will do on a more local level and the divisive nature it could have between the people that live in either region, whether successful or not.

We can currently see Spain looking to take direct control of Catalonia, including replacing the region’s civil servants with Spanish officials. Students hoping to study History should look into the long sequence of events that have built to become to cause of these current developments. They could also consider the patterns of these events in comparison to other important historical separatist movements, or even revolutionary campaigns.

Students applying for HSPS should look into the state of democracy in Spain and question whether the Catalonia vote to leave is democratic, and how representative the current system is allowing. What are the processes and implications of a section of a country leaving the mass? On a broader level, why do we still have physical borders at all – and what do they mean to the modern man and their identity?