Debating within Liberal Nationalism

Abstract

This chapter maps the competing political arguments over language in Catalonia and Flanders in relation to the academic debate around liberalism and nationalism using the framework developed in Chapter 2 of this volume. The author’s main argument is that the Catalan and Flemish linguistic disputes occur within liberal nationalism. All participants in the disputes engage in different forms and degrees in liberal nationalist thinking, and therefore liberal nationalism provides a useful framework for interpreting the disputes. But it is not a perfect one, because the political arguments are typically more nationalist and less liberal than the academic arguments. In the analysis there is an emphasis on the distinctiveness of the contexts and the data. Notably, being in favour of the use of Catalan in the education system while not arguing for the prohibition of Castilian appears more liberal than the arguments drawn on by Flemish nationalists seeking to maintain the integrity of Flemish territory. The chapter concludes with an exploration of the theoretical and contextual factors that explain why political actors make their cases in these two linguistic disputes the way they do.