Ludger Mees

Politics, economy, or culture? The rise and development of Basque nationalism in the light of social movement theory

Nationalism and social mobilization are two of the most prominent areas of research within the social sciences since the end of the Second World War. Yet, the scholarly specialization has so far impeded a mutual exchange of the theoretical and methodological literatures of both areas. While theorists on nationalism dispute about the validity and scientific efficacy of approaches such as primordialism, perennialism, modernism, functionalism or – more recently – ethno-symbolism, scholars concerned with social movement theory have been divided about approaches commonly known as resource mobilization, political process, framing, or new social movement theories. The recent proposal forwarded by McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly (MTT) in their book Dynamics of Contention is an important attempt to overcome the scholarly specialization by presenting a new explanatory framework that aims at opening new analytical perspectives to a better comprehension of contentious politics beyond the “classic social movements agenda.” This article on the rise and development of Basque nationalism, however, while accepting the proposal as a valid focus for the macro-analysis and comparison of broad structures and processes, is rather sceptical as far as its hypothetical productivity on the theoretical meso-level (analysis and comparison of one or a few single cases) is concerned. Instead, in the light of the historical evolution of Basque nationalism since the end of the nineteenth century, including its more recent violent dimension, it is suggested that a productive and intelligent combination of approaches coming from both areas: theories on nationalism and on social movements, is still a useful and necessary task to carry out in order to facilitate a better understanding of nationalism in particular and contentious politics in general.

Nationalist Politics at the Crossroads: The Basque Nationalist Party and the Challenge of Sovereignty (1998–2014)

In the past two decades the Basque Nationalist Partys political strategy has exemplified its historical oscillation between, on the one hand, a more radical claim to Basque sovereignty supported mostly by nationalist forces and, on the other, a comparatively more moderate Realpolitik aimed at achieving higher degrees of regional autonomy and cross-party consensus as a means of more gradual Basque nation-building. In contrast to the mainstream interpretation forwarded by the media and other political parties, the main difference between the relatively more radical or moderate strategies of the PNV is not a higher or lower ideological profile of the claim for Basque sovereignty but a different strategic decision concerning the problem of how to bring together the struggle for sovereignty and the reality of Basque pluralism.

Ethnogenesis in the Pyrenees: The Contentious Making of a National Identity in the Basque Country (1643–2017)

Focusing on the Basque case study, this article adopts a historical longue-durée perspective over more than two centuries (nineteenth and twentieth) in order to better identify the dialectic in the process of identity formation and change of a small European, stateless community, separated by a borderline and living in two different political, socioeconomic and cultural settings. The political expression of this long process of Basque ‘ethnogenesis’ (A.D. Smith) was the rise of the nationalist movement in the Spanish Basque Country at the end of the nineteenth century. By tracing the analysis of Basque identity back to pre-modern times and following its path to the present, this article aims to produce new insights into the factors that trigger the crucial moments of identity change that bring to an end previous periods of stability. Its epistemological fundaments are connected to some prominent topics that have been widely discussed by historians and other social scientists concerned with nationalism and national identity (the cultural shape of national identities; ‘modernists’ versus ‘ethno-symbolists’; nationalism and political religion; national identity and political violence).

Epilogue: the Basque Contention in the Age of Globalization: Old Problems, New Opportunities

When John Stuart Mill published his famous studies Utilitarianism, Liberty and Representative Government, Basque nationalism had not yet emerged. Yet, on either side of the Spanish-French border, there already existed a Basque problem. In France, politics under the Empire of Napoleon III and then, especially, during the Third Republic, continued the nationalist work of the revolutionaries aiming at the consolidation of the Unitarian French nation- state. This task required the elimination of particular cultures like the Basque one. Applying the words of E. Weber, Basque peasants, who ‘were said to have no sympathy in common with the rest of France’, had to be trans- formed into Frenchmen.1 In Spain, the reputation of the Basques was not really any better, since it was in the Basque territories where the tradition- alist and reactionary Carlist movement had its bastion. Consequently, for the Spanish liberals the precondition for the destruction of Carlism and the consolidation of the Spanish nation-state was the abolition of Basque self- government. Thus, both in France and in Spain, state-led nationalism was at odds with Basque particularism, but whereas in France this process of French nation-building was quite successful, the weak Spanish nationalism was unable to assimilate Basque culture and political tradition. On the con- trary, the mobilizing effect of socio-economic modernization triggered the rise of a powerful nationalist movement struggling for the recuperation of lost freedom.

Introduction: the History of This Book

This book has been written despite an initially mistaken hypothesis and an adverse socio-political context. This is probably not the most attractive way of presenting a new publication, because it might provoke reasonable doubts concerning the intellectual ability of the author, who instead of commenting on his own errors should rather underline the correctness and validity of his hypothesis and arguments. Yet, the particular history of this book should be mentioned for two reasons: firstly, because it has influenced its content, and secondly, because it is a good example of the complicated relationship between (social) science and politics and of the problem of how to ensure a minimum of scientific objectivity and rigour in the work of an academic, if his or her research is carried out under the more or less direct impact of politics.

Why It Began: a Strong Periphery within a Weak State

The historical roots of what is commonly called the Basque problem do not coincide with the year 1959, when the radical nationalist underground organization Euskadi ‘ta Askatasuna (ETA, Basque Country and Freedom) was founded. Basque nationalism is now more than 100 years old and its radical, violent wing cannot be regarded as the predominant feature of that history, which started in 1895 when Sabino Arana Goiri founded the first cell of the Basque Nationalist Party, the Partido Nacionalista Vasco (PNV). This party is now, together with the Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol (PSOE), the oldest active party in the political system of the Spanish state.

Democracy, Autonomy and Violence

The establishment and consolidation of the new democracy in Spain as a consequence of the peaceful transition after Franco’s death in 1975 was the background to a spectacular increase of Basque nationalist power both in politics and society. Never before in the history of Basque nationalism since the foundation of the PNV in 1895, had the followers of Sabino Arana enjoyed such political and social influence as they achieved during the last three decades of the twentieth century. From an historical perspective, the transformation of the PNV, which to begin with was a small, semi-clandestine group of petits bourgeois in Bilbao, eventually becoming the dominant, governing, cross-class popular party in the region, was certainly astonishing. If we add the fact that the rise of this major nationalist party had not thwarted the emergence and expansion of other nationalist parties on the left of the PNV, it becomes evident that the institution-alization of post-Francoist democracy in the Basque Country was accompanied by the evolution of a new, historically unprecedented cycle of nationalist power.

The Transition to Democracy and the Basque Problem

Since the late 1970s, the processes of transformation, which brought to an end dictatorial regimes and initiated the construction and consolidation of democracy, have become one of the favourite subjects for research among social scientists. Interest in this problem has increased even more since the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the wave of popular mobilization against communism. In the context of this debate, the Spanish example is generally considered a paradigmatic model for the successful and peaceful establishment of a democratic state after a relatively brief period of transition. The process started with the death of the dictator on 20 November 1975, or even some months earlier when the news concerning Franco’s grave illness was known, and it ended with a large consensus backing the new Constitution, as manifested by the Spanish population in the referendum held in December 1978. Thus, in a little more than three years, Spain managed to overcome nearly forty years of dictatorship by carrying out an ‘ideal type of a negotiated transition’, which set the conditions for the following ‘successful and relatively unproblematic consolidation of democracy’.1 In comparison with other successful southern European transitions to democracy (Portugal, Greece), Spain has been ranked highest, ‘since it has been able to resolve problems which were slightly more difficult faster and more efficiently’.2

The End of a Dream

Obviously, since human beings are not mere functional, passive derivations of existing circumstances, a favourable context does not necessarily bring forth favourable results. The history of peace processes is a good example for how a favourable context might change, because the human agency which is engaged in the process commits errors with negative consequences, or certain actors change their mind and end up opposing a process by withdrawing their initial cooperation. The comparison of this frustrated Basque experience with other — for the moment successful — peace processes, especially the Northern Irish one, provides us with interesting data and ideas for the final step of our analysis, in which I shall look for the reasons for the fateful collapse of the Basque attempt at conflict transformation. However, before entering this theoretical debate concerning the causes of the breakdown of what might have become a Basque peace process, we should briefly analyse how this dream for peace became a nightmare of absorbing fear and increasing violence, and how the return of violence impacted on the political system.

How It Began: the Evolution of Basque Nationalism until the Civil War (1876–1939)

Like other nationalist movements, Basque nationalism was in its origins a phenomenon closely linked to modern, urban, bourgeois, industrial society. It emerged in Bilbao at the end of the nineteenth century within the context of rapid economic growth, massive immigration and violent social turmoil. Its first followers were recruited among sectors of the traditional urban, lower middle classes, who saw themselves as victims of modernization, displaced from the centre to the periphery of society and under pressure both from the socialist labour movement and from the small clan of the politically and economically leading elite of the financial and industrial oligarchy.