Who owns “democracy”? The role of populism in the discursive struggle over the signifier “democracy” in Catalonia and Spain

After the notoriety of the Catalan independence bid in the 2010s, the already extensive literature on Catalan nationalism has grown even further to offer multifarious explanations for the conflict over independence both within Catalonia and between Catalonia and Spain. This article draws on recent approaches incorporating populism – in its articulation with nationalism – as an essential theoretical and empirical tool to better describe the emergence and dynamics of the Catalan independence movement. The study argues that the prevailing populist construction of a sovereign 'people' in Catalonia led to a discursive struggle over the floating signifier 'democracy' between two majority blocs: the one governing Catalonia vis-à-vis the one governing Spain. This is followed by a discourse-theoretical analysis of each bloc's attempts to endow the floating signifier 'democracy' with distinctive meanings. Each bloc, acting in line with their political interests and against the will of relevant minorities within their sovereign demarcations, discursively articulated alternative interpretations of what democracy 'truly' is, thus claiming democratic legitimacy for themselves while demonizing the opponent as 'anti-democratic'. As a result, the insoluble conflict in Catalonia can largely be explained as a struggle with important ethico-political implications between two irreconcilable understandings of 'democracy': constitutional democracy versus majoritarian democracy.