The dual logic of European integration and secession movement
Chen Zhimin hosting a seminar on "BRICS cooperation and global governance" at Fudan University on July 17
Professor Chen Zhimin is a noted scholar in the field of international relations and European studies. He serves as the dean of the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University. He has taken additional posts as the vice-president of the China National Association for International Studies, an editorial board member and adviser of some leading international academic journals, including the Asia Europe Journal, and published several theses in the leading journals at home and abroad.
Although most Scots ultimately elected not to secede from the United Kingdom in a recent referendum, this moment has had an undeniable impact on the history of the commonwealth and is bound to leave an impression on ordinary people there for years to come. CSST’s reporter interviewed Professor Chen Zhimin on the influences of the Scottish referendum.
CSST: Although most Scottish chose to remain in the United Kingdom, by no means will they maintain the status quo. We have noticed that the U.K. government has promised to make concessions in both the realms of politics and economy in order to keep Scotland in the fold.
Chen Zhimin: It can be said that the failure of the Scottish referendum temporarily maintained the unification of the United Kingdom. However, the United Kingdom is no longer the same and neither is Scotland. Scotland will receive much more interior autonomy in the United Kingdom.
At the beginning when Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister, promoted the Scottish referendum, the U.K. government had supposedly thought that the referendum wouldn’t gain support from the majority. What the U.K. government expected was that the secession of Scotland would be resolved once and for all through the referendum and there would be no need to transfer further power to Scotland and that the United Kingdom’s reputation would benefit from the action.
But under the leadership of Salmond, the number of people supporting the secession of Scotland had at one point exceeded that of the camp of people who were against the secession, which deeply troubled the U.K. government. In the end, Scotland did not split with the United Kingdom, but the Scottish secured a commitment to transfer power from the mainstream British political party. At the end of the referendum, Prime Minister Cameron promised that an agreement transferring powers of taxation, expenditure and welfare to Scotland should be reached before November and that legislation should be passed in January of the next year.
CSST: So does it mean that the threat of secession for the U.K. government is not temporary, and it cannot rest easy?
Chen Zhimin: In this referendum, 55% of Scottish voters still chose to remain in the UK. It shows that in the minds of most Scots, Scottish identity and British identity can coexist. There is not an inevitable conflict between greater autonomy for Scotland and maintaining its place within the United Kingdom. Former Prime Minister Brown of British Labour Party is from Scotland, and he indicated that Scotland can gain the most benefit by sharing and cooperating with the United Kingdom. The result of the referendum demonstrates that it reflects the mainstream opinion in Scotland.
But what cannot be neglected is that the national identity and local identity in Scotland have been enhanced through the referendum. Now that the referendum is over, the crisis of national secession in the United Kingdom has been put to rest in the short run, but the hazard still exists, and secessionists remain adamant.
CSST: What is the primary cause for growing support behind Scottish secession? Some people cite the complete decline of the United Kingdom after the World War II as the principle reason.
Chen Zhimin: The movement toward Scottish independence has been in resurgence since the 1970 as the result of both the decline of the United Kingdom’s international standing as well as prominent domestic political and economic conflicts. In 1973, the UK joined the European Community and had to cooperate with continental countries of Europe. The sense of imperial pride has gone away forever. With regard to the development of domestic society and economy, the stagflation of the 1970s intensified problems of the United Kingdom’s domestic wealth distribution, especially the distribution of regional benefits. In the 1980s, the Conservative Party’s economic liberalization reforms brought about overall economic growth in the United Kingdom. However, it led to growing regional disparity and economic inequality, fostering general dissatisfaction among leftists in Scotland.
CSST: Will the Scottish referendum exert an effect on Wales and Northern Ireland?
Chen Zhimin: This possibility is really high. Like Scotland, both Wales and Northern Ireland have local parliaments, but their autonomous legislative power is much less than that of Scotland’s parliament. Once Scotland’s parliament obtains much greater legislative power, the asymmetry among Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland will increase. Under the shock of Scottish referendum, it will be a natural demand for Wales and Northern Ireland to follow Scotland’s step to strive for regional autonomy.
CSST: Besides Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland striving for greater regional autonomy, will the referendum exert a greater influence on the British political system?
Chen Zhimin: I think that the British political system will inevitably make a corresponding change. As the main body, England doesn’t have its own regional parliament and is directly governed by the British Parliament and government. With the expansion of regional autonomous rights in other places, the envy of people in England becomes increasingly intensified and they asked for resolution of the West Lothian question.
At the same time, Cameron promised that the transfer of power to Scotland would be rapidly realized, and he asserted that the West Lothian question needs to be solved with a decisive solution. He indicated that people in England have three possible choices: to further reduce the number of members from England in the British Parliament; to forbid Scottish members in parliament from voting for English affairs in the fields of Scotland received from the transfer of power, or to establish England’s own parliament.
CSST: If the Scottish referendum was observed within the context of Europe as a whole, it would be much more meaningful and thought provoking. From Germany’s Bavaria, Italy’s Sardinia, France’s Corse, to Spain’s Catalonia, ghosts of secession are wandering in Europe. As we all know, European countries created a sample of regional integration by releasing partial sovereignty. So how should we understand these two seemingly contradictory trends between European integration and the resurgence of nationalism?
Chen Zhimin: With the continuous development of today’s globalization and regionalization, decentralization has emerged everywhere and the synchronous development between integration and localization has been taking shape. Europe is no exception. In the E.U., with the highest level of regional integration in the world, some member countries such as Belgium have accomplished the transformation from unitary state to federal state; in other member countries, the transfer of power with different degrees has been achieved, forming a multi-level governance among different actors the local, the state and the European Union. The integration and localization seem to be mutually contradictory but actually have internal logic. Integration stands for national upward delegation of authority, forming the authority in the regional level sharing security, development and identity with the state.
After the end of the Cold War, Western countries played a role in intensifying the secession progress of the Soviet and some of Central and Eastern Europe. Now, the secession movement has spread from non-E.U. countries to E.U. countries with an evolving tendency from localization to decentralization. I think that the EU integration makes the localization possible among member countries, but the development from localization to decentralization is just the product of the central and regional conflicts without control. Taking Scotland as an example, the expansion of secessionists demonstrates that Scottish identity, benefits and preferences are extremely distinguished with those of England and their expansion is the result of the United Kingdom’s ineffective political system.
The Chinese version appeared in Chinese Social Sciences Today, No. 650, Sept. 24, 2014
Translated by Zhang Mengying
The Chinese link:
http://sscp.cssn.cn/xkpd/xhgc/201409/t20140924_1339465.html