Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T15:58:36.172Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Partisans and Nationalists

Rethinking Cleavage Formation and Political Nationalism in Interwar Flanders and Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Abstract

The author provides a critical response to the social scientific literature that cast political interest and cleavages as the projection of sociocultural dynamics onto the political scene. Sociopolitical cleavages in general, and nationalism in particular, are thus viewed as having taken form outside the partisan arena, and only subsequent to their societal formation do they take on political importance. Through a comparison of the development of political nationalism in interwar Scotland and Flanders, the author argues for the importance of political forces in defining and shaping the political and social meaning and significance of nationalism. In Scotland, despite the potential popular appeal of nationalism, it does not emerge as a significant and autonomous political cleavage, principally due to configurations of partisan programs and alliances, and a politically unfavorable “demographic geometry.” In Flanders, on the other hand, markedly different political conditions fostered the development and societal significance of nationalism. Hence, political nationalism did not emerge as a necessary concomitant to societal and cultural change; it was in part the result of political conditions and institutions that could foster or constrain the sociopolitical significance and meaning of nationalism.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2003 

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

Bannockburn Day demonstration, Sterling, 22 June 1935 (1978). In Pamphlets Relating to Scottish Nationalism, 1844–1973. East Ardsley, Wakefield, U.K.: EP Microform.Google Scholar
Barr, James (1921) “Scotland yet! An oration on Sir William Wallace and Scotland's rights.” An address delivered at the Wallace Monument at Elderslie on 27 August and reprinted from “Forward.” Edinburgh: Scottish Home Rule Association.Google Scholar
Bartolini, Hans, and Mair, Peter (1990) Identity, Competition, and Electoral Availability: The Stabilization of European Electorates, 1885–1985. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Basse, Maurits (1933) De vlaamsche beweging van 1905 tot 1930. Vol. 2. Ghent: n.p.Google Scholar
Beaufays, Jean (1973) Les partis catholiques en belgique et aux pays-bas, 1918–1958. Brussels: Etablissement Emile Bruylant.Google Scholar
Black, Charles S. (n.d.) The Case for Scotland. Glasgow: National Party of Scotland.Google Scholar
Bowie, J. A. (1939) The Future of Scotland: A Survey of the Present Position with Some Proposals for Future Policy. Edinburgh: W & R Chambers.Google Scholar
Brasillach, Robert (1936) Léon Degrelle et l'Avenir de Rex. N.p.: n.p.Google Scholar
Brown, Oliver (1939) Scotland and Westminster: An Exposure of London Domination—and a Plea for a Scottish Socialist Government. Glasgow: Labour Council for Scottish Self-Government.Google Scholar
Brown, Oliver (1943) Stepmother Britain. London: Scottish Socialist Party.Google Scholar
Bruce, Steve (1985) No Pope of Rome: Anti-Catholicism in Modern Scotland. Edinburgh: Mainstream.Google Scholar
Burns, Thomas (1940) The Real Rulers of Scotland. Glasgow: London Scots Self Government Committee.Google Scholar
Buttgenbach, André (1936) “Le mouvement rexists et la situation politique de la belgique.” Revue des Science Politiques 59: 511–54.Google Scholar
Buttgenbach, André (1937) Le mouvement rexiste et la situation politique de la belgique. Brussels: n.p.Google Scholar
Calhoun, Craig (1990) “The problem of identity in collective action,” in Huber, Joan (ed.) Macro-Micro Linkages in Sociology. Newbury Park, CA: Sage: 51–75.Google Scholar
Colley, Linda (1985) Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707–1837. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Daalder, Hans, and Peter, Mair, eds. (1983) Western European Party Systems: Continuity and Change. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Daels, Frans (1936) Vlaanderen in 1936. Antwerp: De Sikkel.Google Scholar
Dalton, Russell J. (1988) Citizen Politics in Western Democracies. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House.Google Scholar
De Bruyne, Edgard (1940) “Bilinguisme et autonomie culturelle.” La Revue Générale 73 (May): 639–57.Google Scholar
De Wever, Bruno (1994) Greep naar de Macht: Nationalisme en nieuwe orde. Het VNV, 1933–1945. Ghent: Tielt.Google Scholar
Degrelle, Léon (1941) Degrelle avait raison: Recueil de textes écrits pas Léon Degrelle entre 1936–1940. Brussels: n.p.Google Scholar
Destrée, Jules (1923) Wallons et flamand: La querelle linguistique en belgique. Paris: Plon-Nourrit.Google Scholar
Duverger, Maurice (1954) Political Parties: Their Organization and Activity in the Modern State. New York: Methuen.Google Scholar
Elias, Hendrick (1935) De Dietsche Volksstaat: Een Handleiding voor Propogandisten. Vlaamsch Nationaal Studiebureau voor Kultureele, Politieke en Sociaale-Economische Vraagstukken. Aalst, Belgium: Dietschland.Google Scholar
Etienne, Jean-Michel (1968) Le mouvement rexiste jusqu'en 1940. Paris: Colin.Google Scholar
Eyerman, Ron, and Jamison, Andrew (1991) Social Movements: A Cognitive Approach. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Aitken (1938) Scotland. Glasgow: Communist Party of Great Britain.Google Scholar
Finlay, Richard J. (1994) Independent and Free: Scottish Politics and the Origins of the Scottish National Party, 1918–1945. Edinburgh: John Donald.Google Scholar
Flanagan, Scott C. (1973) “Models and methods of analysis,” in Gabriel Almond, Flanagan, Scott C., and Mundt, Robert J. (eds.) Crisis, Choice, and Change: Historical Studies of Political Development. Boston: Little, Brown: 73–89.Google Scholar
Flanagan, Scott C., and Dalton, Russell J. (1984) “Parties under stress: Realignment and dealignment in advanced industrial societies.” West European Politics 7 (1): 7–23.Google Scholar
Franklin, M. N. (1992) “The decline of cleavage politics,” in Franklin, M. N., Mackie, T. T., and Valen, H. (eds.) Electoral Changes: Responses to Evolving Social and Attitudinal Structures in Western Countries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 383–405.Google Scholar
Frans Van Cauwelaert et la question des langues en belgique (n.d.) Molenbeek: De Vlaamsche Wachter.Google Scholar
Gallagher, Tom (1987) Glasgow, the Uneasy Peace: Religious Tension in Modern Scotland. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Gellner, Ernest (1983) Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Gibb, Andrew D. (1930) Scotland in Eclipse. London: Toulmin.Google Scholar
Gibb, Andrew D. (1937) Scottish Empire. London: Maclehose.Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving (1974) Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Greenfeld, Liah (1992) Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
De Greep naar de Macht: Standpunten van het V.N.V. Ten Overstaan van Vraagstukken van dezen Tijd. (1942) Antwerp: Volk en Staat, Vlaamsch Nationaal Verbond.Google Scholar
Hermans, Theo, Louis, Vos, and Lode, Wils, eds. (1992) The Flemish Movement: A Documentary History. London: Athlone.Google Scholar
Höjer, Carl-Henrik (1969) Le Régime Parlementaire Belge de 1918 à 1940. Brussels: Centre de Recherche et d'Information Socio-Politiques.Google Scholar
Hossay, Patrick (2001) “Methodological madness: Why accounting for nationalism—and many other political phenomena—is difficult for social scientists.” Critical Sociology 27 (2): 163–91.Google Scholar
Hossay, Patrick (2002) Contentions of Nationhood: Nationalist Movements, Political Conflict, and Social Change in Flanders, Scotland, and French Canada. Lanham, MD: Lexington.Google Scholar
Inauguration demonstration of the National Party of Scotland held in King’s Park, Stirling, 23 June 1928 (1978). In Pamphlets Relating to Scottish Nationalism, 1844–1973. East Ardsley, Wakefield, U.K.: EP Microform.Google Scholar
Johnston, Thomas (1952) Memories. London: Collins.Google Scholar
Keating, Michael, and Bleiman, David (1979) Labour and Scottish Nationalism. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Levitt, Ian (1988) Poverty and Welfare in Scotland, 1890–1948. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Lipset, Seymour Martin, and Rokkan, Stein (1967) “Cleavage structures, party systems, and voter alignments,” in Lipset, Seymour Martin and Rokkan, Stein (eds.) Party Systems and Voter Alignments: Cross-National Perspectives. New York: Free Press: 1–64.Google Scholar
Luykx, Theo (1978) Politieke geschiedenis van belgie. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
MacCormick, John (1955) The Flag in the Wind: The Story of the National Movement in Scotland. London: Victor Gollancz.Google Scholar
Maor, Moshe (1997) Political Parties and Party Systems: Comparative Approaches and the British Experience. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
McAdam, Doug, Sidney, Tarrow, and Tilly, Charles (1997) “Toward an integrated perspective on social movements and revolutions,” in Lichbach, Mark Irving and Zuckerman, Alan S. (eds.) Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 142–73.Google Scholar
Melucci, Alberto (1989) Nomads of the Present: Social Movements and Individual Need in Contemporary Society. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Middlemass, Keith (1965) The Clydesiders: A Left Wing Struggle for Parliamentary Power. London: Hutchinson.Google Scholar
Mitchell, James (1996) Strategies for Self-Government: The Campaigns for a Scottish Parliament. Edinburgh: Polygon.Google Scholar
Paterson, Lindsay (1994) The Autonomy of Modern Scotland. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Post-War Scotland: A Survey of Scotland's Political, Economic and Cultural Position. (1934) Glasgow: Scottish National Party.Google Scholar
Rae, D. W., and Taylor, M. (1970) The Analysis of Political Cleavages. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Sartori, Giovanni (1968a) “Political development and political engineering.” Public Policy 17: 261–98.Google Scholar
Sartori, Giovanni (1968b) “The sociology of parties: A critical review,” in Otto, Stammer (ed.) Party Systems, Party Organizations and the Politics of the New Masses. Berlin: Institut für Politische Wissenschaft an der Freien Universität.Google Scholar
Schattschneider, E. E. (1960) The Semi-Sovereign People: A Realist View of Democracy in America. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Scotland and Self-Government (1932) Glasgow: Glasgow Herald.Google Scholar
Shamir, Michal (1984) “Are political party systems ‘frozen’?” Comparative Political Studies 17 (1): 35–79.Google Scholar
Snow, David A., and Benford, Robert D. (1992) “Master frames and cycles of protest,” in Morris, Aldon D. and Mueller, Carol McClurg (eds.) Frontiers in Social Movement Theory. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press: 133–55.Google Scholar
Thomson, George (1927) Caledonia or the Future of the Scots. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.Google Scholar
Thomson, George (1935) Scotland, That Distressed Area. Edinburgh: Porpoise Press.Google Scholar
van Cauwelaert, Karel (1936) “Le mouvement flamand devant l'opinion allemande.” La Revue Générale 15 (January): 95–105.Google Scholar
van de Perre, Alphonse (1911) Pourquoi les catholiques flamands demandent ils la flamandisation de l'université de gand? Borgerhout, Belgium: Leemans.Google Scholar
van de Perre, Alphonse (1919) The Language Question in Belgium. London: G. Richards.Google Scholar
van de Vyvere, , [no first name given], Van de Perre, Alphonse, van Cauwelaert, Frans, et al. (1919) De vlaamsche interpellatie. Brussels: De Standaard.Google Scholar
van Dieren, Edmond (1929) “La question flamande et l'avenir de la belgique.” Le Flam-beau, 1 August: 361–71.Google Scholar
van Doorslaer, Rudi, Gotovitch, José, Raes, Koen, etal. (1992) Herfsttij Van De 20ste Eeuw: Extreem-Rechts in Vlaanderen 1920–1990. Leuven: Kritak.Google Scholar
van Puymbroeck, Herman (1925) Het Vlaamsche Front en de Strijd voor de Vlaamsche Zelfstandigheid. Antwerp: Volksheil.Google Scholar
van Puyvelde, Leo (1918) Le mouvement flamand et la guerre. Les cahiers belges. Brussels: Librairie Nationale d'Art et d'Histoire: G. van Oest.Google Scholar
Vandeweyer, Luc (1989) “De hoop op een duitse revanche-oorlog: De voorbereiding van de kollaboratie door de vlaams-nationalisten rond het weekblad vlaanderen (1922–1934).” Cahiers/Bijdragen 12: 207–28.Google Scholar
Vermeylen, Auguste [signed A. V.] (1918) Notes pour solutionner la question flamande en belgique. Turnhout, Belgium: Etablissements Brepols Société Anonyme.Google Scholar
Willems, Jan (1987) “Arthur De Bruyne, de letterknecht van zwart vlaanderen,” in Johan, Anthierens et al. (eds.) De vlaamsch kronijken. Berchem, Belgium: EPO: 37–48.Google Scholar
Wils, Lode (1973) “Bormsverkiezing en compromis des belges: Het aandeel van regeringsen oppositie-partijen in de taalwetgeving tussen beide wereldoorlogen.” Belgische Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis 4: 265–330.Google Scholar
Wils, Lode (1989) Honderd jaar vlaamse beweging, III. Leuven: Davidsfonds.Google Scholar
Wolinetz, S. B. (1979) “The transformation of the Western European party system revisited.” West European Politics 2 (1): 2–28.Google Scholar
Zuckerman, Alan S. (1982) “New approaches to political cleavages: A theoretical introduction.” Comparative Political Studies 15 (2): 464–98.Google Scholar
Zuckerman, Alan S., and Linchbach, M. (1977) “Stability and change in European electorates.” World Politics 30 (July): 523–51.Google Scholar