This paper argues that the Scottish National Party and the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie have recently made an instrumental case for independence that runs counter to traditional principled notions of external self-determination as an end in itself, as well as to remedial arguments based on claims of victimisation, alien rule and lack of recognition. They thus represent an important novelty in the history of nationalist discourse. More in detail, the peculiarity of their rhetoric lies in the use of functional arguments concerning the economic and social consequences of external self-determination in terms of competitiveness, well-being, the delivery of social services, good governance and better democracy, as well as in the acceptance of a gradualist approach to independence. The paper then presents an explanation for the adoption of these rhetorical strategies based on three sets of factors: normative, institutional and electoral.