Who negotiates for a nation? Catalan mobilization and nationhood before the Spanish democratic transition, 1970–1975

Abstract

Much of the literature on democratic transitions and ethnic conflict focuses on the role of elites, whether as constructive contributors to ethnic harmony and pacted transitions, or as fomenters of disharmony. What these accounts often fail to take into account is the extent to which the existence of political elites is a variable in itself, particularly when their power bases are not organizations like an army but rather nations or classes. The article develops an analysis of how competition for scarce militants and the demands of organizing them shapes the power and importance of elites. It does this through a case study of Catalonia in the years preceding the Spanish transition. During those years Catalonia, both a stateless nation and a potentially divided society, was the site of organizing from the left and right that nearly monopolized militants and channelled their activity into autonomist, inclusive forms of nationalist mobilization that stifled attempts at internal polarization while creating elites who could negotiate on Catalonia's behalf in the transition. In other words, the ability of moderate Catalan nationalists to organize before the transition explains their ability to represent Catalonia and control its fissures later, and contributes to explaining the success of Catalonia as a case of peaceful multinational coexistence.

Keywords:

• elites
• nationalism
• Catalonia
• Spain
• language
• social movements

Notes on contributor

Scott L. Greer is Associate Professor of Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan. His books include the forthcoming co-edited Health Systems Governance and Federalism in Good Times and Bad.

Notes

1. Lijphart, “The Wave of Power-Sharing Democracy,” 45; Horowitz, “Constitutional Design.” For elites, Burton, Gunther, and Higley, “Introduction,” 8–9.

2. Lijphart, “Consociational Democracy.”

3. Williams, The Wars Within, 185.

4. O'Donnell and Schmitter, Transitions from Authoritarian Rule.

5. Collier, Paths Toward Democracy, 6–10.

6. Jullien and Smith, “Conceptualizing the Role of Politics in the Economy.”

7. Collier and Mahoney, “Adding Collective Actors to Collective Outcomes”; Valanzuela, “Labor Movements in Transitions to Democracy”; Collier, Paths Toward Democracy.

8. For example, Foweraker, Making Democracy in Spain.

9. Fishman, Working Class Organization and the Return to Democracy in Spain, Chapters 1 and 2, esp. pp. 17, 21, 45.

10. Described in more detail in Greer, Nationalism and Self-Government.

11. Gunther, “Spain.”

12. McDonough, Barnes, and Pina, The Cultural Dynamics of Democratization in Spain, x.

13. Balfour, Dictatorship, Workers and the City, 200; Köhler, El Movimeniento Sindical en España, 105–116.

14. Soto, “Conflictividad Social y Transición Sindical.”

15. Royo, “From Contention to Social Bargaining.”

16. Especially, in English, Conversi, The Basques, the Catalans, and Spain; Díez-Medrano, Divided Nations.

17. For example, Edles, “A Culturalist Approach to Ethnic Nationalist Movements”; Guibernau, “Nationalism and Intellectuals in Nations without States.”

18. For a reflection on such framing, McGrattan, “Policing Politics.”

19. Tortella, El Desarrollo De La España Contemporánea, 37.

20. Díez Medrano, Divided Nations; Genieys, Las Élites Españolas Ante El Cambio Del Régimen Político; Harty, “The Institutional Foundations of Substate National Movements”; Linz, “Early State-building and Late Peripheral Nationalisms Against the State”; Greer, Nationalism and Self-Government.

21. Castells and Parellada, “L'economica Catalana En El Context Espanyol I Europeu.”

22. Balfour, Dictatorship, Workers and the City, 41–61.

23. Carr and Fusi, Spain; Townson, Spain Transformed.

24. Sancho i Valverde and Ros i Navarro, “La Població De Catalunya En Perspectiva Histórica,” 92, 100.

25. Candel, Els Altres Catalans, 156.

26. Candel, Els Altres Catalans Vint Anys Desprès, 107.

27. Benet, Catalunya Sota El Franquisme.

28. Colomer, Cataluña Como Cuestion De Estado.

29. Candel, Els Altres Catalans, 15–87.

30. “Personal networks remain at the centre of … analysis … because they are the grass roots of the whole process of the making of democracy in Spain.” Foweraker, Making Democracy in Spain, 10.

31. Molinero and Ysàs, Catalunya durant el Franquisme, 2. The key work on post-war repression is Preston's The Spanish Holocaust.

32. de Riquer and Culla, El Franquisme i La Transició Democràtica, 23.

33. Molinero and Ysàs, Catalunya Durant El Franquisme, 10–15.

34. de Riquer and Culla, El Franquisme I La Transició Democràtica, 84–103. A maquis guerrilla uprising in the Pyrenees was short-lived and ineffective.

35. Maravall, Dictatorship and Political Dissent, 9.

36. The PSUC, whose behaviour outraged George Orwell in Homage to Catalonia, was the only exception to the Third International's rule of one party per state.

37. Cebrián, Estimat PSUC.

38. Foweraker, Making Democracy in Spain, 5.

39. Also known as “movement surrogacy.” Dawson, Eco-nationalism, 6.

40. Interview, February 2001, Barcelona.

41. Interview, Antoni Gutierrez Diaz, February 2001, Barcelona.

42. Interviews, Rafael Ribo, Antoni Gutierrez Diaz, Jordi Sole-Tura. Solé Tura, Una Història Optimista, 380–382.

43. Molinero and Ysàs, Productores Disciplinados Y Minorías Subversivas, 95–98.

44. Sánchez López and Marín, “Sindicalismo Vertical Franquista.”

45. Gabriel et al., Commisions Obreres De Catalunya 1964–1989, 53.

46. Maravall, Dictatorship and Political Dissent, 81.

47. Gabriel et al., Commisions Obreres De Catalunya 1964–1989, 80.

48. Ibid., 64.

49. Ibid., 40–42.

50. Castells, The City and the Grassroots.

51. Sánchez León, “Radicalism without Representation.”

52. Balfour, Dictatorship, Workers and the City, 195–196.

53. Jarne, L'Oposició al Franquisme a Lleida. The left was important because it dominated the resistance in Barcelona, and Barcelona dominated Catalonia. That did not mean the left dominated the resistance in the rest of Catalonia.

54. Radcliff, “Associations and the Social Origins of the Transition.”

55. Palomares, “New Political Mentalities in the Tardofranquismo.” For the overall evolution of the church, Lannon, Privilege, Persecution, and Prophecy; Callahan, The Catholic Church in Spain.

56. Crexell, Els Fets Del Palau I El Consell De Guerra a Jordi Pujol.

57. Lorés, La Transició a Catalunya (1977–1984); Barrio López, “Les Arrels De Convergència Democràtica De Catalunya”; Marcet, Convergència Democràtica De Catalunya, 7–16.

58. Interview, Francesc Cabana.

59. Interview, Manuel Milian Mestre.

60. The extraordinary Comissió Organitzadora, La Trobada De Lluçanes.

61. See Pitarch et al., Partits i Parlamentaris a la Catalunya D'Avui.

62. Colomer, Cataluña Como Cuestion De Estado. This section is based on interviews with Ramon Espasa, Antoni Gutierrez Diaz, Jordi Solé-Tura, Heribert Barrera, Josep Bricall, Rafael Ribó, Josep Benet, and Isidre Molas.

63. Anguera, Els Precedents Del Catalanisme; Marfany, La Cultura Del Catalanisme.

64. Conversi, The Basques, the Catalans, and Spain.

65. Colomer, Cataluña Como Cuestion De Estado.

66. Cebrián, Estimat PSUC.

67. Faulí, “Omnium Cultural 1961–1981.” Also interviews with Cabana, Molas.

68. The most influential of which he wrote in prison, published as Construir Catalunya.

69. Interview, Department of Culture (Generalitat) functionary, February 2001.

70. Gol i Gurina et al., La Sanitat als Països Catalans.

71. Pre-eminently around architect Oriol Bohigas and urbanist Jordi Borja.

72. Solé Tura, Una Història Optimista.

73. Batista and Playà, La Gran Conspiració, 152; Interviews, Pere Portabella, Antoni Gutierrez Diaz, Barcelona, March 2001.

74. Ibid., 92.

75. Ballester, Risques, and Sobrequès i Callicó, El Triomf De La Memòria. Weeks later, the Spanish prime minister would restore the Generalitat.

76. Cebrián, Estimat PSUC.