Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T22:10:08.077Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Internal variation in sub-state national movements and the moral polity of the nationalist

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

Jaime Lluch
Jaime Lluch*
Affiliation:
European Studies Center, St Antony's College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
*
* E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Variation in secessionism among sub-state nationalists is part of one of the great puzzles of ethnic politics. Sub-state national movements tend to bifurcate and, at times, trifurcate, into two or three basic nationalist orientations: independentist nationalism, autonomist nationalism (and its sub-variants), and federalist nationalism (and its sub-variants). There is a dearth of systematic comparative research into the sources and patterns of internal variation in the political orientations of sub-state national movements. This article investigates why some sub-state nationalists opt for a secessionist orientation while other nationalists within the same national movement opt for a variety of non-secessionist orientations. I use evidence gathered in Quebec and Catalonia, consisting of 42 interviews among the top leadership of the eight national parties of these societies, 15 focus group interviews with party militants, and 370 questionnaires answered by militants, etc. The national consciousness and materialist approaches fail to elucidate these issues. Instead, sub-state nationalists have expectations about what is fair treatment by the central state, and notions about what obligations emerge due to common membership in a plurinational state. Independentists and strong decentralizers (strong autonomists and radical asymmetric federalists) opt for their chosen orientations because they perceive that central state institutions are unable to promote an ethos of plurinational reciprocity and are aggrieved by state nationalism, while less-decentralizing nationalists (weak autonomists and traditional federalists) assert that the central state is capable of accommodation and reciprocity and have no grievances about state nationalism.

Keywords

nationalismnationalist movementsindependenceautonomyfederalism
Type
Research Article
Information
European Political Science Review , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , November 2012 , pp. 433 - 460
Copyright
Copyright © European Consortium for Political Research 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baras, M. (2004), Els Militants dels Partits Politics a Catalunya: Perfils Socials i Percepcions Politiques, Barcelona: Institut de Ciencies Politiques i Socials.Google Scholar
Bariteau, C. (2005), Pour Sortir de l'Impasse Référendaire, Montréal: Les Éditions des Intouchables.Google Scholar
Bates, R. (1974), ‘Ethnic competition and modernization in contemporary Africa’, Comparative Political Studies 6(4): 457–484.Google Scholar
Beissinger, M. (2002), Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Booth, W.J., James, P.Meadwell, H. (eds) (1993), Politics and Rationality: Rational Choice in Application, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brass, P. (1975), Language, Religion, and Politics in North India, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brass, P. (1991), Ethnicity and Nationalism, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Breton, A., Galeotti, G., Salmon, P.Wintrobe, R. (eds) (1995), Nationalism and Rationality, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Breuilly, J. (1993), Nationalism and the State, 2nd edn., Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Brubaker, R. (1998), ‘Myths and misconceptions in the study of nationalism’, in J. Hall (ed.), The State of the Nation: Ernest Gellner and the Theory of Nationalism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 40–90.Google Scholar
Caminal, M. (1998), Nacionalisme i Partits Nacionals a Catalunya, Barcelona: Editorial Empuries.Google Scholar
Conversi, D. (1997), The Basques, the Catalans, and Spain: Alternative Routes to Nationalist Mobilization, London: Hurst & Company.Google Scholar
Cook, K., Hardin, R.Levi, M. (eds) (2005), Cooperation without Trust?, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Cornell, S. (2002), ‘Autonomy as a source of conflict: Caucasian conflicts in theoretical perspective’, World Politics 54: 245–276.Google Scholar
Culla, J. (2001), ‘De la primera victoria al vintenni en el poder (1980–2000)’, in J. Culla (ed.), El Pal de Paller: Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (1974–2000), Barcelona: Pòrtic, pp. 127–160.Google Scholar
Culla, J. (2002), Unió Democràtica de Catalunya: el llarg cami (1931–2001), Barcelona: Unió Democràtica de Catalunya.Google Scholar
Davidson, N. (2000), The Origins of Scottish Nationhood, London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Díez Medrano, J. (1999), Naciones Divididas: Clase, Política, y Nacionalismo en el País Vasco y Cataluña, Madrid: Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas.Google Scholar
Farrell, H. (2004), ‘Trust, distrust, and power’, in R. Hardin (ed.), Distrust, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Fehr, E.Fischbacher, U. (2005), ‘The economics of strong reciprocity’, in H. Gintis, S. Bowles, R. Boyd and E. Fehr (eds), Moral Sentiments and Material Interests, Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Fukuyama, F. (1996), Trust: the Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity, New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Gagnon, A. (2003), ‘Undermining federalism and feeding minority nationalism’, in A. Gagnon, M. Guibernau and F. Rocher, (eds), The Conditions of Diversity in Multinational Democracies, Montréal: Institute for Research and Public Policy, pp. 295–312.Google Scholar
Gagnon, A., Guibernau, M.Rocher, F. (eds) (2003), The Conditions of Diversity in Multinational Democracies, Montréal: Institute for Research and Public Policy.Google Scholar
Geertz, C. (1967), ‘The integrative revolution: primordial sentiments and civil politics in the new States’, in C. Geertz (ed.), Old Societies and New States, 3rd edn., New York: The Free Press, pp. 105–128.Google Scholar
Gellner, E. (1983), Nations and Nationalism, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Gerring, J. (2004), ‘What is a case study and what is it good for?’, American Political Science Review 98(2): 341–354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gintis, H., Bowles, S., Boyd, R.Fehr, E. (eds) (2005), Moral Sentiments and Material Interests, Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Guibernau, M. (2004), Catalan Nationalism: Francoism, Transition, and Democracy, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hale, H. (2000), ‘The parade of sovereignties: testing theories of secession in the Soviet setting’, British Journal of Political Science 30: 31–56.Google Scholar
Hale, H. (2008), The Foundations of Ethnic Politics: Separatism of States and Nations in Eurasia and the World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hardin, R. (1995), One for All: The Logic of Group Conflict, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hardin, R. (2006), Trust, London: Polity.Google Scholar
Hechter, M. (1992), ‘The dynamics of secession’, Acta Sociologica 35: 267–283.Google Scholar
Hechter, M. (2000a), Containing Nationalism, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hechter, M. (2000b), ‘Nationalism and rationality’, Studies in Comparative International Development 35(1): 3–20.Google Scholar
Henders, S. (2010), Territoriality, Asymmetry, and Autonomy: Catalonia, Corsica, Hong Kong, and Tibet, 1st edn., New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, E. (1991), Nations and Nationalism since 1780, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Horowitz, D. (2000), Ethnic Groups in Conflict, Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Hroch, M. (1993), ‘From nationalist movement to the fully formed nation’, New Left Review 198(March–April), 29–45.Google Scholar
Hroch, M. (1994), The Social Interpretation of Linguistic Demands in European National Movements, Florence: European University Institute.Google Scholar
Institut de Ciències Polítiques i Socials (2008), 2008 Sondeig d'Opinió- Catalunya, Barcelona: Institut de Ciències Polítiques i Socials.Google Scholar
Keating, M. (2001), Plurinational Democracy, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kymlicka, W. (1995), Multicultural Citizenship, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kymlicka, W. (2001), Politics in the Vernacular: Nationalism, Multiculturalism, and Citizenship, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lluch, J. (2010), ‘How nationalism evolves: explaining the establishment of new varieties of nationalism within the national movements of Quebec and Catalonia’, Nationalities Papers: The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity 38(3): 337–359.Google Scholar
Lluch, J. (2011a), ‘Autonomism and federalism’, Publius: the Journal of Federalism (online publication May 2011): 1–28.Google Scholar
Lluch, J. (2011b), ‘Sovereigntists and associationists: explaining the origins of national movements’ political orientation’, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 17(2): 203–224.Google Scholar
Lluch, J. (2012). Visions of Sovereignty: Varieties of Minority Nationalism in Multinational Democracies, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Lustick, I., Miodownik, D.Eidelson, R. (2004), ‘Secessionism in multicultural states: does sharing power prevent or encourage it?’, American Political Science Review 98(2): 209–230.Google Scholar
Mahoney, J.Goertz, G. (2004), ‘The possibility principle: choosing negative cases in comparative research’, American Political Science Review 98(4): 653–670.Google Scholar
McRoberts, K. (1997), Misconceiving Canada: the Struggle for National Unity, Toronto: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Meadwell, H. (1989), ‘Ethnic nationalism and collective choice theory’, Comparative Political Studies 22: 47–68.Google Scholar
Meadwell, H. (1993), ‘The politics of nationalism in Quebec’, World Politics 45(2): 203–241.Google Scholar
Molm, L., Collett, J.Schaefer, D. (2007), ‘Building solidarity through generalized exchange: a theory of reciprocity’, American Journal of Sociology 113(1): 205–242.Google Scholar
Ostrom, E. (2005), ‘Policies that crowd out reciprocity and collective action’, in H. Gintis, S. Bowles, R. Boyd and E. Fehr (eds), Moral Sentiments and Material Interests, Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Ostrom, E.Walker, J. (eds) (2003), Trust and Reciprocity: Interdisciplinary Lessons from Experimental Research, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Pelletier, B. (2004a), Présentation du monsieur Benoît Pelletier, ministre délégué aux Affaires intergouvernementales canadiennes et aux Affaires autochtones à l'occasion d'une visite au Parlement de Catalogne, 17 Novembre 2004.Google Scholar
Pelletier, B. (2004b), Présentation du monsieur Benoît Pelletier. L'Avenir du Québec au sein de la Fédération Canadienne, Montréal, 1er Octobre 2004.Google Scholar
Putnam, R. (1993), Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Rabushka, A.Shepsle, K. (1972), Politics in Plural Societies: A Theory of Democratic Stability, Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill Publishing.Google Scholar
Sánchez, J. (ed.) (1999), Estudis de les Elits dels Partits Polítics de Catalunya, Barcelona: Institut de Ciències Polítiques i Socials.Google Scholar
Scott, J. (1976), The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia, New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Scott, J. (1990), Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts, New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, A. (1998), Nationalism and Modernism, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Smith, A. (2004), ‘Identities, interests, and the future of political science’, Perspectives on Politics 2(2): 301–312.Google Scholar
Suksi, M. (1998), Autonomy: Applications and Implications, The Hague; Boston: Kluwer Law International.Google Scholar
Sztompka, P. (1999), Trust: A Sociological Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tamir, Y. (1993), Liberal Nationalism, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, C. (1994), ‘The politics of recognition’, in A. Gutmann (ed.), Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition, Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 25–74.Google Scholar
Thompson, E.P. (1963), The Making of the English Working Class, London: Victor Gollancz Ltd.Google Scholar
Thompson, E.P. (1971), ‘The moral economy of the English crowd in the eighteenth century’, Past and Present 50: 76–136.Google Scholar
Thompson, E.P. (1993), Customs in Common: Studies in Traditional Popular Culture, New York: The New Press.Google Scholar
Varshney, A. (2002), Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India, New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Varshney, A. (2003), ‘Nationalism, ethnic conflict, and rationality’, Perspectives on Politics 1(1): 85–99.Google Scholar
Watts, R. (2008), Comparing Federal Systems, 3rd edn., Montréal: Published for the School of Policy Studies, Queen's University by McGill-Queen's University Press.Google Scholar
Weber, M. (1978), in G. Roth and C. Wittich (eds), Economy and Society, Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar