A STUDY has revealed that independence is more likely to be successful in countries where the struggle has been peaceful than in places where violence has been used.
Researchers at St Andrews University have produced a report entitled Scotland and Separatism: Reverberations of the Scottish Independence Referendum on Separatist Politics, examining the effects on politics around Europe after the Scottish independence referendum.
It found that areas such as Northern Ireland and the Basque Country, where terrorism had been used in the fight for independence, were actually further away from their goal than Scotland and Catalonia.
Author Dr Kieran McConaghy, of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the university, also found independence movements in Catalonia and Scotland had embraced a broader notion of what it means to be Scottish or Catalan, centred on civic identity rather than one purely based on language or ethnicity.
McConaghy said: “What we are seeing in Scotland and Catalonia are invigorated, positive independence campaigns, with broad understandings of national identity. These are the independence movements that are generating support, rather than exclusivist and violent independence movements.”
The research also found voters tend to be most interested in the socio-economic factors over any other when deciding whether or not to support independence.
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