Abstract
Independence movements have garnered international attention in the recent years as the world has seen an increased number of minority nations seeking independence from their sovereign states. However, most of those living within these minority nations hold national identity ties to their larger state as well. This was conceptualized with Michael Keating’s concept of plurinationalism in his book Plurinational Democracies, published in 2001, capturing the general sentiment of many political scientists and analysts at the time where he states people can inhabit more than one national identity. Thus, it was thought that independence movements would not be on the rise in the 21st century, moreover they would be increasing in number. However, as seen with nations such as Scotland and Catalonia, this was not the case. This paper provides a case study of these two minority nations and how they came to seek independence from the United Kingdom and Spain, respectively, despite plurinationalism still being a relevant concept to describe national identity trends within the nations today. It suggests that while national identity is integral to independence movements, other existing social, political, or economic factors may lead a nation to seek independence at an accelerated rate.