Can Subaltern States Speak? The Case of the Basque Political Agreement

Abstract

Contemporary evolution of the concept of sovereignty posits a post-Westphalian scenario in which statehood is conceived in a relational, strategic way. Firstly, this article raises the possibility of applying the concept of subaltern statehood to certain nations which do not have official statehood, but which have strong state institutions. Secondly, by considering the Basque Country a subaltern state, we analyse the recent proposal for a Political Agreement that outlines a model of confederate sovereignty of pre-Westphalian inspiration. This proposal would make it possible to overcome the subaltern character of Basque statehood in the current post-Westphalian context.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Basque language or Euskera, is a very old language whose origins remain unknown and is not related to any other Latin language such as Spanish or French. The Basque Country also has many cultural peculiarities related to music, sport, dance, gastronomy, mithology etc.

2 SRA from now on.

3 We will develop this idea further and give some concrete examples below.

4 The Basque self-government was established in 1979 in the post dictatorship context. In this case, we refer to the debate that was opened in 2017 on a new statute of autonomy for the Basque Country.

5 The nationalist majority in the Basque Parliament has remained constant over time and in the surveys carried out in recent years, the opinion favourable to the right to decide exceeds 60%. https://www.euskadi.eus/contenidos/documentacion/sociometro_vasco_56/es_def/adjuntos/14sv56.pdf Consequently, on 30th March 2023, the Basque Parliament approved a non-legislative motion urging constitutional reform that recognises the plurinationality of the State and the right to decide of its nations, as well as the possibility of opting for a republican form of government in Spain. It has had the support of 77% of the representation in the Basque Parliament.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Parte Hartuz Research Group.