The Manufacturing of a Secessionist ‘Majority' Public Opinion

The current secessionist movement in Catalonia is often depicted as a grass-roots-driven, radical-democratic movement and one allegedly supported by a majority of society.  On the basis of a wide and consistent body of empirical evidence, this paper highlights different aspects of the process of political mobilization organized by the movement.  It admits that some truly "grass-roots" mobilization is taking place, but this is mostly of semi-rural low-middle and middle classes, which amount to a limited share of today’s post-industrial and globalized Catalan society.  Finally, it demonstrates the proliferation of poor survey research that create the impression that there is more popular support for the secessionist agenda than in reality exists, and points out relevant outcomes of these bad practices.