ABSTRACT
This chapter presents Catalonia profiles of longstanding democracies and of the European Union, and provides essential detail on history, electoral system, political parties and cleavages, and governments. Despite being under the Spanish crown in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Catalonia retained its own official language, currency, and taxes, and its independent institutions. Catalonia was a strong supporter of Republican Spain in the civil war, so the entry of Francisco Franco’s troops into the region in 1938 ended all autonomy. Elections in Catalonia use party list proportional representation with the d’Hondt method. The Initiative for Catalonia was formed in 1987, as the successor to the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia. In contrast to the Basque Country with its shifting coalitions, Catalonia was mostly governed by the convergence and union up through 2015, and indeed with the same premier, Jordi Pujol, from 1980 to 2003 setting a record for years.
