Minority Nationalist Parties Research Articles

Identity, money, or governance? Explaining secessionist parties’ rhetorical strategies

Under what conditions do secessionist parties advance identity, socioeconomic or political frames for constitutional change? By performing a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) of 93 party manifestos from six Western regions, the results identify a key variable that plays an important role in rhetorical strategies: the governmental status of the party. In linguistically distinctive regions, parties tend to put forward identity frames when in opposition. Instead, being in office is a condition for framing their position in socioeconomic terms. The results concerning political frames are highly complex, although patterns around office holding have also been identified. Hence, the present article shows that office-seeking strategies imply a fundamental change in how these parties frame their claims. Minority nationalist parties take the opportunity of being in office to enhance their credibility as governing parties by downplaying identity issues in favour of a more inclusive and policy-oriented appeal.

Languages, secessionism and party competition in Catalonia: A case of de-ethnicising outbidding?

This article explores party strategies in electoral competition in Catalonia in order to test the existence of ethnic outbidding ( Chandra, 2005 ; Zuber and Szöcsik, 2015 ). We contribute with original findings on this case by addressing the evolution of political parties’ discourses through a qualitative analysis of their manifestos for the last five regional elections campaigns (2006–2017), covering a period of strong territorial conflict between Catalonia and Spain. Our analysis aims to measure the impact of secessionism growth on parties’ ethnic competition in Catalonia and compares the strategies of secessionist, federalist and centralist parties. In order to measure ethnicity, we focus on language, the most salient identity marker in Catalan politics, and link the evolution of parties’ territorial positions to that of their treatment of national identities and the Catalan and Castilian languages – both official languages in Catalonia – in their manifestos. Our findings include diverse strategies that do not entirely fit in with ethnic competition theories. First, we find that territorial outbidding does not always imply ethnic outbidding: political parties generally do not use the main identity marker in Catalonia (language) for outbidding purposes. Second, we find some evidence of ethnic outbidding in majority nationalist parties, but not in minority nationalist parties.

Explaining the Perseverance of "Independence in Europe": Strategic Reinforcements of Minority Nationalist Pro-Europeanism

In the 1980’s minority nationalist parties adopted a policy of “independence in Europe.” Paradoxically, the policy simultaneously advocated conceding powers to a supranational body and taking back powers from the state. EU regional development programs initially spurred these pro-European policies, but these programs have since failed. Given the EU incentives, why do minority nationalist parties remain pro-European? I test a bottom-up, party political theory and use the British case studies of the Scottish National Party and the Welsh nationalist party, Plaid Cymru. I argue that these parties have remained proEuropean because they are small oppositional parties. As small oppositional parties, minority nationalist parties have unique strategic mechanisms that incentivize policy inertia. These mechanisms are: (1) the continuity and dominance of party leadership in making EU policy, (2) underdeveloped policy positions, and (3) the importance of transnational coalitions. Implications include the possibility that as minority nationalist parties grow in size and power, they might alter their European position to suit changing strategic considerations.

Instrumental Europeans? Minority Nationalist Parties’ Discourse on the European Union: The Case of UK Meso-Elections 1998–2011

Traditionally, minority nationalist parties (MNPs) have employed the notion of Europe in order to advance an alternative to centralized administration within the unitary state. This study examines whether earlier claims of MNPs' repositioning on the European Union (EU) are supported by a discourse analysis of manifestos in UK meso-elections. The findings confirm a significant shift in MNPs' framing of EU policy at the regional level; no longer advanced as a principal route to autonomy, voters are latterly invited to view the EU more as a fiscal-support mechanism. The wider significance of the findings is in pointing to post-devolution instrumentalism and an ideologically fluid phase in MNP attitudes to the European project. In the wake of state restructuring, meso-elections present new discursive opportunities for MNPs to seek a mandate to build on the degree of self-government already attained through the (re)creation of regional polities without principal reliance on the goal of ‘independence in Europe’.

Ethno-linguistic Identity and Party Politics in the Aosta Valley

The French-speaking minority within the Italian part of the Alpine region has been politically mobilized since the beginning of the twentieth century. The party politics of the Aosta Valley region have been traditionally shaped on the ethno-linguistic, rural–urban and centre–periphery cleavages. The main minority nationalist party claiming to represent the French-speaking community of the region is the Union Valdôtaine (UV). This paper aims to explore the role of the main political actor of this Alpine region, the UV. The UV's ideological positions will be analysed, and also its responses to the external pressures that the party is currently facing: gaining political representation, immigration, and the processes of European integration and of regionalization of the Italian state. On the basis of an analysis of party manifestos, this paper will argue that the UV has strategically employed identity issues to secure its political survival.

A Business Political Cycle? Economic Conditions and Party System Dimensionality

As economic conditions change, so do voters’ priorities. During economic recession or crisis, economic policy and management dominate voters’ concerns, and parties with a clear ideological “brand” on the traditional, left-right, socioeconomic spectrum are best placed to attract votes. Parties that emphasize a secondary ideological dimension, such as constitutional change or postmaterialist concerns, stand to lose votes during hard times. Therefore, in multiparty systems with multiple dimensions of ideological competition, economic expansion should expand the dimensionality of the system and economic contraction should contract its dimensionality, as revealed in party vote shares. All parties can be expected to try to pivot to economic policy during recession, but parties with a previously strong profile on economic issues can position themselves most credibly. This paper tests the hypothesis that minority nationalist, environmentalist, and liberal parties tend to lose votes during recession on national election results in the advanced democracies of western Europe, North America, and the Pacific Rim. The results do not support the hypothesis. If anything, liberal parties seem to improve their performance when growth is poor or inflation is high. Perhaps nontraditional parties serve as outlets for protest votes during hard times.

Minority Nationalist Parties and European Integration: A Comparative Study – By A. Elias

Minority Nationalist Parties and European Integration: A Comparative Study – By A. Elias

The Rise and Fall of a ‘Europe of the Regions’

This article explores the diverse ways in which parties operating in regional contexts have responded to, interpreted, and used the imagery of a ‘Europe of the Regions’ to advance their territorial demands. It is demonstrated that parties have not had consistent positions on Europe, rather, they have exhibited a cyclical quality, moving back and forth in response to perceived opportunities for regional action in Europe. Whilst many parties were cautious of Europe in the late 1970s, by the early 1990s there was a convergence of regional party support for a ‘Europe of the Regions’. This goal was advocated by minority nationalist and state-wide parties alike, causing the former to moderate their claims and the latter to strengthen their territorial demands. However, growing frustration with the apparent neglect of regional interests in the European project caused parties to revert back to earlier or more Euro-sceptical positions in the late 1990s, heralding the decline and fall of a Europe of the Regions.

From Euro-enthusiasm to Euro-scepticism? A Re-evaluation of Minority Nationalist Party Attitudes Towards European Integration

This article examines the different dimensions of, and different factors affecting, minority nationalist party attitudes towards Europe. The article draws on evidence from minority nationalist parties in two different contexts—Plaid Cymru in Wales and the Bloque Nacionalista Galego in Galicia—to argue that minority nationalist party attitudes towards European integration are more complex than is usually asserted in the existing academic literature. First, even though minority nationalist parties converged around the idea of a Europe of the Regions during the 1980s and 1990s, the nature of, and motivations for, this support differed widely from party to party. Secondly, there is evidence that, in recent years, minority nationalist parties have become increasingly critical of Europe, although they have not yet abandoned their normative aspirations for a regional Europe. At the same time, however, the salience of the European integration issue has declined markedly in the political projects espoused by minority nationalist parties in Wales and Galicia. The article concludes by arguing that whilst minority nationalist parties may not have turned their back completely on the idea of a Europe of the Regions, a new pragmatism drives these parties' strategies and tactics for meeting their short- and long-term goals.

The Shrinking Political Space of Minority Nationalist Parties in an Enlarged Europe of the Regions

From the late 1980s, European integration has been seen to have benefits for minority nationalist parties in terms of setting the political agenda, reinforcing the role of regional governments and providing second-order electoral opportunities at European elections. However, recent EU enlargements have produced a negative environment for minority nationalist parties, evident in the loss of support and MEPs in the 2004 European election. This article examines the development of minority nationalist parties at the European level since 1979, and evaluates different potential explanations for the demise of the party family since 2004.

Europe, Constitutional Debates and the Spanish State of Autonomies

This paper examines recent debates on the European Union's (EU) constitution and their impact on territorial politics in Spain. Analysis of the preferences and participation of autonomous communities and minority nationalist parties in treaty decision processes and the 2005 Spanish referendum, addresses questions about the mobilization of territorial actors, their ability to influence politics beyond the state, political cleavages on EU issues and the role of European integration in domestic disputes on nationalities questions. I argue that innovations in EU treaty processes provided new access for some Spanish territorial actors, but treaty outcomes reflected their limited impact. Ethno-territorial and ideological cleavages present in domestic politics on territorial matters extended to EU issues with territorial dimensions. Finally, while constitutional treaty debates provided minority nationalist leaders with opportunities to articulate distinctive political profiles both at home and abroad, scope for consensual accommodation of national differences within Spain by way of European integration made little progress.

Distinctiveness of regional voting: A comparative analysis across the European Community (1979–1993)

All regions of the European Community, including purely administrative ones, are examined to see how far their aggregate party votes differ from those cast across the state as a whole. Considerable differences emerge both between regions themselves and between regions and the state in which they are embedded. While these are not exclusively related to voting for a minority Nationalist party, this is a major element in voting distinctiveness. Structural factors promoting distinctiveness in general are employment in agriculture, unemployment and (more weakly) regional GDP. Factors influencing minority nationalist voting in the regions where it exists are employment in industry, unemployment and (overwhelmingly) the presence of a regional language.