Regionalism, Cultural Diversity and the State in Spain

Abstract

Spain is a crucial case study in assessing the relationship between cultural distinctiveness and regional identities. The Spanish case suggests that the state is a key variable in shaping regional-cultural identification in Catalonia, the Basque Country, Galicia and other areas, more so than the cultural markers themselves. This article uses historical institutionalism, a general approach to politics that gives theoretical importance to political institutions, to explain Spain's contemporary regional-cultural identities. It shows how these identities were moulded by the various historical forms of the Spanish state. It discusses four such forms in light of their impact on the country's identity landscape: the early Spanish state, whose loose structure generated a tradition of territorial autonomy which rendered difficult subsequent attempts at national integration; the centralising state of the late 19th century that threatened the power of regional elites and led them to formally articulate distinct identities; the authoritarian state whose cultural repression had the unintended consequence of bolstering and spreading them to the masses; and the democratic state whose framework of Autonomous Communities triggered a multiplication of regional-cultural identities.